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How to Request Access
Step 1: Click "Request Access" below to submit your Hugging Face access request.
Step 2: Complete the verification process on REDCap:
Complete REDCap Verification
The REDCap form will ask you to:
- Provide your name, institution, role, Hugging Face username, and intended use
- Upload your CITI training completion certificate (instructions)
- Electronically sign the Data Use Agreement
- Verify your institutional email address (a link will be sent to your email)
Your request will be reviewed within 5 business days. Once approved, your Hugging Face account will be granted access to the full dataset.
Requirements
- A Hugging Face account (create one here if needed)
- An institutional email address (university or hospital; personal emails like Gmail will be rejected)
- CITI training completion: the "Data or Specimens Only Research" course (instructions)
- Signed Data Use Agreement (handled electronically in REDCap)
This dataset contains de-identified clinical text with PHI span annotations. Access requires two steps: (1) Request access here on Hugging Face, then (2) complete the verification process via our REDCap form.
Log in or Sign Up to review the conditions and access this dataset content.
SHIELD
SHIELD is a dataset of clinical text with PHI (Protected Health Information) span annotations for benchmarking de-identification and named entity recognition models. The dataset contains de-identified clinical notes from Stanford Medicine with expert-annotated PHI spans across 9 entity categories.
Quickstart
- A public sample is available at tds-research-tech/shield-sample without access approval — use it to explore the schema and build your pipeline
- To access the full dataset, complete the access request process described below
Dataset Structure
Notes Table
| Column | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
note_id |
string | Unique identifier for each clinical note |
note_text |
string | Full text of the clinical note |
note_type |
string | Type of clinical note (e.g., discharge summary, radiology report) |
Spans Table
| Column | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
span_id |
string | Unique identifier for each annotated span |
note_id |
string | Foreign key linking to the notes table |
span_start |
int | Character offset where the span begins |
span_end |
int | Character offset where the span ends |
span_label |
string | PHI category label |
Labels
| Label | Description |
|---|---|
age |
Patient age |
date |
Dates (admission, discharge, procedures, etc.) |
doctor |
Physician or provider names |
hospital |
Hospital or facility names |
id |
Medical record numbers, SSNs, or other identifiers |
location |
Addresses, cities, states, zip codes |
patient |
Patient names |
phone |
Phone or fax numbers |
web |
Email addresses, URLs, IP addresses |
Usage
Loading the public sample
from datasets import load_dataset
# Public sample (no access request needed)
sample_notes = load_dataset("tds-research-tech/shield-sample", "sample_notes")
sample_spans = load_dataset("tds-research-tech/shield-sample", "sample_spans")
Loading the full dataset (requires access)
from datasets import load_dataset
# Full dataset (requires approved access)
full_notes = load_dataset("tds-research-tech/shield", "full_notes")
full_spans = load_dataset("tds-research-tech/shield", "full_spans")
Access Requirements
NOTE: You must apply using your institutional email address. If you use Gmail or other personal email addresses, you will not be granted access.
Before applying, make sure you have the following:
- A Hugging Face account. Create one at huggingface.co/join if you don't have one. You will need to provide your Hugging Face username in the application.
- Verified affiliation with an Academic, Government, or Industry Research Lab. Please use your institutional email address when applying — do not use Gmail or personal emails.
- CITI Training: Complete the CITI Program course "Data or Specimens Only Research" (the same course required for MIMIC-IV access on PhysioNet). See instructions here. You will need to upload your completion certificate during the application.
The access request process has six steps:
- Request Access on Hugging Face — Click "Request Access" at the top of this page to register your Hugging Face account.
- Complete CITI Training — If you haven't already, complete the CITI "Data or Specimens Only Research" course and download your completion certificate.
- Submit Access Request on REDCap — Complete our REDCap verification form. Provide your name, institution, role, Hugging Face username, intended use, and upload your CITI completion certificate.
- Sign the Data Use Agreement — Read and electronically sign the DUA. You will be automatically redirected after step 3.
- Verify Your Institutional Email — A verification link will be sent to your institutional email address. You must click the link to confirm ownership.
- Admin Review — Your request will be reviewed and you will be notified by email of the decision. Once approved, access will be granted to your Hugging Face account.
These data must remain on your encrypted machine. Redistribution of data is FORBIDDEN and will result in immediate termination of access privileges.
Important Notes
- Sending SHIELD data over a non-HIPAA-compliant API is a violation of the DUA.
- If you create derived research artifacts based on SHIELD (such as additional annotations or synthetic data), please contact us to discuss appropriate hosting and licensing.
- Please allow 5 business days to process applications.
Contact
JD Posada (jdposada@stanford.edu)
Citation
@inproceedings{YOUR_CITATION,
title={YOUR TITLE},
author={YOUR AUTHORS},
year={2026},
}
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