shifting-clinical-dates
Apply consistent per-patient date shifting in OpenMed that preserves intervals between events while satisfying HIPAA Safe Harbor's date rule. Use when the user needs to de-identify dates but keep temporal structure for research, shift all dates by the same offset per patient, preserve days-between-events for survival or longitudinal analysis, cap ages over 89, or strip everything but the year. Covers deidentify(method=\"shift_dates\", date_shift_days=..., keep_year=...) and per-patient reproducible offsets via consistent=True, seed=.... Pairs with OpenMed deidentifying-clinical-text and auditi
npx skills add maziyarpanahi/openmed --skill shifting-clinical-dates --agent claude-code
Same command for any agent — swap --agent for codex, cursor, copilot.
Weekly change comes from our own snapshots, not the repository page — it measures attention, not adoption.
# Shifting clinical dates HIPAA Safe Harbor forbids keeping dates more specific than the year. But naively deleting dates destroys the temporal structure research depends on — time to event, length of stay, intervals between visits. **Date shifting** is the compromise: move every date by a single random offset so the *absolute* dates become meaningless while the *intervals* between them are preserved exactly. OpenMed does this on-device with `deidentify(method="shift_dates", ...)`. ## When to use this skill Use it when downstream analysis needs temporal relationships (survival curves, sepsis-to-antibiotic time, readmission gaps) but the calendar dates must be de-identified. If you can throw dates away entirely, plain `method="mask"` is simpler — reach for shifting only when intervals matter. ## Quick start ```python import openmed note = ( "Admitted 2024-03-02, started antibiotics 2024-03-04, discharged 2024-03-09. " "Follow-up scheduled 2024-04-02." ) # Shift every date by the SAME offset -> intervals preserved, dates obscured. result = openmed.deidentify( note, method="shift_dates", consistent=True, # one stable offset for this run seed=20240519, # reproducible per-patient offset
- When to use this skill
- Quick start
- How interval preservation works
- Per-patient consistent offsets
- Workflow
- Hand-off to / from OpenMed
- Edge cases & gotchas
- Standards & references
What does the shifting-clinical-dates skill do?
Apply consistent per-patient date shifting in OpenMed that preserves intervals between events while satisfying HIPAA Safe Harbor's date rule. Use when the user needs to de-identify dates but keep temporal structure for research, shift all dates by the same offset per patient, preserve days-between-events for survival or longitudinal analysis, cap ages over 89, or strip everything but the year. Covers deidentify(method=\"shift_dates\", date_shift_days=..., keep_year=...) and per-patient reproducible offsets via consistent=True, seed=.... Pairs with OpenMed deidentifying-clinical-text and auditi
How do I install it?
Run `npx skills add maziyarpanahi/openmed --skill shifting-clinical-dates --agent claude-code` — it drops the skill into your project so the agent can pick it up. Swap the --agent value for codex, cursor or copilot if you use one of those.
Where does this skill come from?
From maziyarpanahi/openmed, a repository with 4,851 stars. We read it straight from the repository tree rather than a submitted listing, so what you see here is what is actually published.
Is a popular skill a good skill?
Not necessarily. Stars measure attention, not adoption — a repository can trend for a week and be abandoned. That is why we show the weekly change from our own snapshots next to the total, instead of a single flattering number.