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evidence
Patient, supervision, complaint and incident records. Not every file.
Not every supporting file needs redacting. Patient documents, records about people you supervise, and complaints or incidents about someone else do. Redaction must be permanent.
Elaryvo educational guide informed by the GMC Portfolio Pathway page Evidence anonymisation (redaction). It is not a GMC form, not GMC policy, and not a substitute for the live GMC page if you are submitting to the GMC.
Not every document needs redacting. Certificates, course letters, your own qualifications, and similar professional papers usually do not.
Redact first if the file is a patient document, a document about someone you supervise, or a complaint or incident about someone else.
If you would not show the unredacted page to a stranger on a train, it is not ready for Elaryvo.
Elaryvo stores working copies. Supervisors, assessors and exporters may later read what you save.
Patient confidentiality is a professional duty, not an Elaryvo setting. In the United Kingdom, Good medical practice and data-protection law sit behind that duty. Other countries have their own rules. The working method is the same: remove identifiers before a file leaves the clinical system.
On GMC Portfolio Pathway, the GMC publishes a dedicated anonymisation page. Elaryvo teaches that method here so you can redact before you upload a working copy. A GMC application still follows the live GMC page.
Check every page. The GMC list of patient identifying details is the list Elaryvo teaches:
Names (first and last), nicknames, addresses including street names and postcodes, contact details, NHS numbers and other unique reference numbers, weblinks or QR codes that point to a record, reference numbers on letters, and photographs of patients (including close-up eyes).
Also remove details of the patient’s relatives and of members of the public who are not acting in a professional capacity.
This is not an exhaustive list. If a detail could identify the person, take it off.
| Usually redact | GMC says you may keep |
|---|---|
| Patient name, nickname, address, phone, email | Gender |
| NHS number, hospital number, letter reference, QR codes | Date of birth — GMC says this can help show the range of patients seen |
| Photos of the patient | Your own name as the author of the work |
| Relatives and other members of the public | Hospital or clinic type in general terms, without a ward list |
GMC evaluators may find gender and date of birth useful for case mix. In Elaryvo working notes, still do not type names, numbers or unique stories.
Redact details of colleagues you have assessed, written a reference for, or who have been involved in a complaint. That includes names, registration numbers, phone numbers and email addresses.
On a serious incident or a complaint, GMC guidance is that every doctor’s name apart from your own must come off.
Do not strip colleague names from ordinary workplace assessments, meeting attendance, or letters and emails where that person assessed you or wrote in a professional capacity. Those names are part of the evidence of who judged the work.
Read the file. Find every identifier. Then use real redaction, not a white box sitting on top of the text.
GMC recommends PDF redaction software such as Adobe Acrobat. Select the text, mark it for redaction, then apply the redactions. If you skip Apply, the words are still in the file.
Do not cover text with shapes, highlights or a second text box. Those can be moved. The original words often remain selectable underneath.
After you apply redaction, check that you cannot copy and paste the hidden words, cannot drag a box aside to reveal them, and cannot read them in any other view.
Your workplace IT team may already have a licensed tool and a short how-to. Use that if you have it.
Use a redaction pen or a black crayon. That leaves a thick layer that does not scan through easily.
Do not use a ballpoint, a felt tip, or correction fluid. Those often show the original words once the page is scanned or the fluid dries.
Scan the redacted page. Check the scan as carefully as you would a PDF.
A workbook is not one sheet. Check every worksheet, including hidden columns and hidden sheets, then remove what should not travel.
Embedded files and links let someone open a second document from inside the first. Remove those before you upload.
The GMC says it is your responsibility to anonymise evidence. They will not redact it for you. Unredacted files delay an application.
If they find personal information while checking, they may delete the file and ask you to resubmit, tell the relevant College, and ask for updated data-protection training plus a reflection.
Further unredacted files at the point of evaluation may be excluded. Evidence sent for evaluation that still contains patient or sensitive data can cause the application to fail. The GMC also warns of a possible Fitness to Practise referral and of GDPR and Good medical practice issues.
That is GMC process, not Elaryvo process. Read the live GMC anonymisation page before you submit there. Elaryvo is a working copy, not the GMC portal.
A supporting file is optional. Confirm what the document is, then choose it. Tick that it is not a patient, supervision, complaint or incident document, or that you have redacted it first.
PDFs may be up to 10 MB. Elaryvo is not a clinical system. Do not upload the unredacted original.