Data Sources
Data Sources
Data sources are largely broken down into two categories: administrative billing databases and specialty databases.
Need Data Support? Ask the Data Navigator.
The Ohio State University offers numerous data sources for researchers, but effectively navigating these resources can be daunting. To assist faculty and staff in this process our Data Navigator acts as the first point of contact. The Data Navigator provides a high-level explanation of regulatory and institutional processes regarding these databases, identifies potential collaborators and addresses initial data-related questions. The navigator helps clarify requests, coordinates efforts and links investigators with domain experts for different data sources.
Administrative Databases
Administrative billing databases are very large, very complex databases which offer near limitless possibilities as it pertains to study questions. While they can have their shortcomings, the flexibility, size, scope and relatively limited availability of the data make them ideal candidates for most any study question.
CMS Standard Analytic Files
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Standard Analytic Files (SAFs) contain inpatient, outpatient, skilled nursing facility and Hospice data for millions of publicly insured individuals across the United States.
IBM MarketScan
IBM's MarketScan contains inpatient, outpatient, skilled nursing facility and drug billing data for millions of privately insured individuals across the United States.
National (Nationwide) Inpatient Sample (NIS)
National (Nationwide) Inpatient Sample (NIS) is the largest publicly available all-payer inpatient healthcare database in the United States providing national estimates of hospital inpatient stays.
Nationwide Readmissions Database (NRD)
Nationwide Readmission Database (NRD) is a powerful database designed to support different types of analyses involving national readmission rates for all payers and the uninsured.
Specialty Databases
Specialty databases offer an immense amount of variety in terms of study population, answerable questions and vary in complexity from quite approachable to very complex. They can be broken down by detail and study population to help determine which is most appropriate for your research.
Electronic Health Record (EHR) Databases
Different from administrative billing databases, EHR-based databases are large and complex and offer near limitless possibilities as it pertains to study questions. They can be institution specific (LifeScale) or multi-institutional (Cosmos and PCORnet) and vary in administrative accessibility. While they can have their shortcomings, the flexibility, size, scope and relatively limited availability of the data can make them ideal candidates for most any study question.
Epic Cosmos
Coded limited data set of data provided by participating organizations (including Ohio State Wexner Medical Center) to EPIC that is continuously updated including electronic health records of hundreds of millions of patients.
LifeScale
LifeScale is an Ohio State-specific, honest-broker mediated, coded-limited database developed in partnerships with Microsoft, College of Optometry, College of Dentistry, OSUCCC-James (including Tumor and Registry data) and includes data not often found in electronic medical record data.
PCORnet CDM
The Ohio State University is part of Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) funded National Patient-Centered Clinical Research Network (PCORnet) with ~75 academic medical centers and health systems that are grouped into eight Clinical Research Networks (CRNs) spread all over the United States.
Cancer Databases
National Cancer Database (NCDB)
Specialty/Cancer database. Data must be requested by PI (project specific).
Other Nationwide Data Sources
Ohio State Federal Statistics Research Data
The Federal Statistics Research Data Center (FSRDC) is a collaboration with the U.S. Census Bureau to provide access to restricted individual and firm-level data from federal statistical agencies. The FSRDC provides access to many restricted-access datasets.
All of Us
The NIH’s All of Us Research Program is one of the largest biomedical data resources with health data from a diverse group of participants from across the United States.