ECG privacy model shields age, sex and race while preserving heart risk signals

It is a common misperception that electrocardiograms (ECGs) simply contain data about heart activity.

However, modern ECGs enhanced with artificial intelligence (AI) can contain data about a patient's sex, age, race and even exact identity derived from ECG signals, raising fresh privacy concerns.

To address these worries, researchers from the University of Kansas have developed a privacy-preserving AI model called (PP-VAE) to protect personally sensitive data. ...