AI Associate Data for AI Practice Question
A healthcare organization uses Salesforce to develop an AI model for patient readmission prediction. They must comply with HIPAA regulations. The dataset includes patient names, addresses, medical record numbers, and detailed clinical notes. The data scientist plans to train a supervised model using historical readmission outcomes. What is the most important data governance step before model training?
⚠ Common exam trap
Salesforce often tests the misconception that security controls like encryption or access controls alone satisfy HIPAA compliance, when in fact de-identification is the primary requirement for using PHI in AI model training without patient consent.
Answer choices
Why each option matters
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
De-identify all protected health information (PHI) by removing or masking identifiers.
HIPAA mandates that protected health information (PHI) must be de-identified before it can be used for model training without patient authorization. Removing or masking identifiers such as names, addresses, and medical record numbers ensures the dataset no longer contains individually identifiable information, allowing the organization to comply with the HIPAA Privacy Rule while still using clinical notes for predictive modeling.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Use only aggregated data that does not include any patient-level details.
Why it's wrong here
Aggregation may lose granularity needed for readmission prediction; de-identification of patient-level data is preferred.
- ✓
De-identify all protected health information (PHI) by removing or masking identifiers.
Why this is correct
De-identification ensures compliance with HIPAA and protects patient privacy, allowing safe use of data for AI.
- ✗
Obtain written patient consent for every record used in training.
Why it's wrong here
While consent is important, HIPAA allows use of de-identified data without consent; obtaining consent for each record is impractical.
- ✗
Store the data in a separate, encrypted environment with access controls.
Why it's wrong here
While security measures are important, they do not remove PHI; de-identification is the primary requirement.
Go deeper
Related to this question
About these practice questions
This AI Associate question is part of Courseiva's 753-question bank — original exam-style content with full explanations and wrong-answer analysis, never real exam questions or exam dumps. Learn why practice questions differ from exam dumps →
JA
Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
This AI Associate practice question is part of Courseiva's free Salesforce certification practice question bank. Courseiva provides original exam-style practice questions with explanations, topic-based practice, mock exams, readiness tracking, and study analytics to help learners prepare for the AI Associate exam.