# Protected health information

Concept · [Cloud, hosting and security](https://ecosystem.samcarlton.com/cloud)

Also called: PHI, health data, medical records data, ePHI

Under US health [privacy](https://ecosystem.samcarlton.com/data-privacy) law ([HIPAA](https://ecosystem.samcarlton.com/compliance)), health information that can identify a person, such as a diagnosis tied to a name. Software that handles it for clinics must protect it under strict rules.

**For example:** A therapy [notes app](https://ecosystem.samcarlton.com/apple-notes) treats every [session](https://ecosystem.samcarlton.com/session) note as PHI and signs a [business associate agreement](https://ecosystem.samcarlton.com/business-associate-agreement) with each clinic.

## Connects to (4)

- [Compliance](https://ecosystem.samcarlton.com/compliance): Meeting the laws, regulations and standards that apply to a company.
- [Data privacy](https://ecosystem.samcarlton.com/data-privacy): How a company collects, uses, stores and shares information about people.
- [Encryption](https://ecosystem.samcarlton.com/encryption): Scrambling data with a key so only someone with the right key can read it.
- [Business associate agreement](https://ecosystem.samcarlton.com/business-associate-agreement): A contract that US health privacy law (HIPAA) requires before a clinic, health plan or other covered organization lets an outside company…

Map view: https://ecosystem.samcarlton.com/protected-health-information