Protected Health Information

PHI

operations

Updated 5/16/2026

Definition

Any information in a medical record that can be used to identify an individual and that was created, used, or disclosed in the course of providing a health care service.

Standard Abbreviation

PHI

Database Usage

-- Example column naming
CREATE TABLE claims (
  clm_id VARCHAR(50),
  phi VARCHAR(100),  -- Protected Health Information (max 100 chars)
  ...
);

-- Example in SELECT
SELECT
  clm_id,
  phi as protected_health_information
FROM claims;

Common uses in healthcare data

Healthcare data warehouse schema design and modeling
Interoperability and cross-system data exchange
ETL pipeline development and orchestration
Master data management (MDM) programs
Analytics and business intelligence reporting

Example database column name

ISO-11179 snake_case standard

-- Recommended column name
phi

-- Example DDL
CREATE TABLE healthcare_data (
  record_id   VARCHAR(50)   NOT NULL,
  phi          VARCHAR(100),  -- Protected Health Information (max 100 chars)
  created_dt  TIMESTAMP     NOT NULL DEFAULT NOW()
);

Column names follow the ISO-11179 naming convention: lowercase, underscore-separated, using the standard abbreviation as a prefix where applicable.

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