De-identifying a case formulation is the removal of personal identifiers from a clinician’s working theory of a client. The Data Protection Act 2018 and the NHS Code of Confidentiality govern these records. anonym.plus does the work on your machine, fully offline. Where a formulation touches on a client's capacity to engage with an aspect of their own care, the Mental Capacity Act 2005's principles (including the best-interests duty in s.4) sit alongside DPA 2018 as a second, separate legal framework the write-up may reference.
When this applies
You present a formulation at a multidisciplinary team (MDT) case discussion. The write-up names the client, family roles, and a workplace, which must be hidden first.
How anonym.plus handles it
- Open the file in anonym.plus on your device.
- Local OCR reads any scanned page.
- It flags client and family names plus the workplace.
- Review each flag and keep the analytic content.
- Replace each value with a label, or remove it.
- Save the clean write-up. The source stays local.
What you need to provide
- The file (PDF, DOCX, TXT, or scan).
- An operator: Replace, Redact, or Mask.
- Optional: a key map for re-linking.
Patient data entity types detected
| Category | anonym.plus entity type | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Client | PERSON | Aaron Cole → [CLIENT_1] |
| Family role | PERSON | father Glen → [FAMILY_1] |
| Workplace | ORGANIZATION | Vista Foods Ltd → [EMPLOYER] |
| Date | DATE_TIME | Formulated 27/02/2026 → [DATE] |
| Phone | PHONE_NUMBER | +44 7911 100166 → [PHONE] |
| NHS number | NHS_NUMBER | NHS 640 250 1234 → [NHS_NO] |
Compliance achieved
- Strips identifiers under DPA 2018 & NHS Code of Confidentiality.
- Where the formulation discusses a capacity or best-interests question, the Mental Capacity Act 2005 principles apply to that clinical decision separately from the data-protection question the tool addresses.
- Local only, so no cloud processor contract is needed.
- Drafts are protected with AES-256-GCM.
- Also meets UK GDPR Art. 9 for special-category health records.
Anonymise case formulations offline — see plans & start free →
Limitations & cautions
A formulation weaves rich personal context together. The tool removes named identifiers. You still judge whether the woven detail could point back to one client before a peer consultation.
Frequently asked questions
Can I present this at an MDT discussion?
Yes, once de-identified. With identifiers stripped and DPA 2018 satisfied, the write-up may anchor a multidisciplinary team discussion safely, without the room needing to know who the client is.
Are family roles hidden?
Yes. A named parent, sibling, or partner mentioned in the formulation is an identifier in its own right. The tool flags each one so the client cannot be traced through a family role described in the write-up.
Does de-identifying the formulation change any capacity decision it discusses?
No. Any Mental Capacity Act assessment or best-interests decision described in the formulation stands on its own clinical and legal footing. Removing the client's identity from a copy used for MDT discussion has no bearing on that separate decision.