Patent ID: 8478765

Claim:
A method of compiling an electronic database of entity-specific information maintained by a plurality of unaffiliated institutions, comprising the steps of: providing each institution with a computer-based device having a software module that executes an algorithm to create surrogate entity codes, wherein each surrogate entity code (i) corresponds to a unique value of entity identification information maintained by such institution, and (ii) is generated in such manner that no entity identification information can be derived from such surrogate entity code, wherein the algorithm creates each surrogate entity code by executing, in succession, (i) an irreversible transformation of the corresponding value of the entity identification information, and then (ii) a reversible transformation of the output values of the irreversible transformation, and wherein, with respect to any specific value of the entity identification information, the algorithms executed by the computer-based devices yield (i) output values from the irreversible transformations that are the same for all institutions, and (ii) output values from the reversible transformations that are different for every institution but are convertible to a common surrogate entity code; receiving from each institution a set of data records, each of which contains information that pertains to a particular entity and is associated with a surrogate entity code, and which is free of entity identification information; installing in the database the data records provided by the plurality of institutions; and linking the data records at the entity-specific level by converting the different surrogate entity codes from the different institutions into common surrogate entity codes and then, with respect to each common surrogate entity code, logically associating all data records with which such common surrogate entity code is associated.