Table 1.
Commonly Linked Databases
| Category | Description | Who Owns | Examples |
|---|---|---|---|
| Claim files | (1) Organized at the claim level (2) Can be from a single payer (e.g., Medicare) or a single health system with multiple payers (3) Comprehensiveness varies. For example, if using Medicare files, data from third-party payers are not available or if using hospital discharge data, outpatient claims are not available | Insurers (federal, state insurance plans, private plans), providers (e.g., hospitals, medical groups) that submit claims | Medicare, Medicaid, private payers (e.g., Anthem), HCUP, and other hospital discharge data, providers |
| Disease registries | (1) Incidence based (2) Data on disease (site and stage of cancer), date of diagnosis, first course of treatment (surgery, radiation) (3) Includes patient-level data such as age and race | States, federal government, providers (chronic disease registries) | State cancer registries, Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results, birth defects registries, infectious disease registries |
| Survey | (1) Contains qualitative data—open-ended survey items (2) Self-reported patient- and provider-level information | Federal government, individual investigators | Health Retirement Survey, National Health Interview Survey |
| Provider files | (1) Provider or organization level (2) Provider characteristics-(e.g., ownership, size, staffing) | Government, organization professional associations | American Medical Association Physician Masterfile, American Hospital Association |
| Electronic medical records | (1) Designed for clinical care (2) Capacity to provide clinical information on each patient (3) Limited implementation and interoperability | Provider | Cerner, Epic, Eclypsis, Siemans, GE Centricity |
| Area level | (1) Organized at the county, ZIP code, census tract, or block (2) Provides resource information (e.g., number of physicians, specialists, hospitals per 100,000 residents) and characteristics of geographic unit (e.g., median household income, racial composition, employment rates) | Government | Area resource file, U.S. Census data |