# Redact medical record numbers

> Redact MRNs and patient record identifiers from clinical notes, referrals, and export files.

Canonical: https://bitbanger.in/entities/medical-record
Last updated: 2026-10-27

Category: Health data · Entity type: `healthcare.medical_record`

An MRN is the join key for a patient's entire history inside a provider. Redacting it is often the difference between a de-identified extract and a fully identifiable one.

## How Redactly detects medical record numbers

- Detected by a context cue that pairs an MRN or record-number label with the value.
- No format assumption, because MRN schemes are provider-specific.
- Health plan identifiers are reported separately as healthcare.health_plan_id.

## Why redact medical record numbers?

Under HIPAA the MRN is one of the 18 identifiers that must be removed for safe-harbour de-identification.

## Example request

```bash
curl -X POST https://api.bitbanger.in/v1/redact \
  -H "X-API-Key: rdct_your_key_here" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"text": "MRN: 004512378, referred to cardiology on 2026-09-30.", "style": "replace"}'
```

## FAQ

**Does Redactly redact medical record numbers automatically?**

Yes. Send text to the API and every detected type is redacted, including medical record numbers. To redact only this type, pass the value healthcare.medical_record in the entities filter. No training or configuration is required.

**What happens to medical record numbers after redaction?**

With style set to replace, each match becomes [healthcare.medical_record] — the entity type in square brackets. Setting style to mask replaces every character with a block character, and remove deletes the span entirely.

## Related entity types

- [Health plan identifiers](https://bitbanger.in/entities/health-plan-id) — Redact health plan and insurance member IDs from claims, eligibility files, and billing exports.
- [Medical conditions](https://bitbanger.in/entities/condition) — Redact diagnoses and medical conditions from clinical notes, claim narratives, and support transcripts.
- [Medications](https://bitbanger.in/entities/medication) — Redact drug names and prescriptions from clinical text and support transcripts.

Try it on your own text: https://bitbanger.in/entities/medical-record