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HSR Information Central (HSRIC)
 
HSR General Resources
Data, Tools, and Statistics
HSR Social Media Resources
Education and Training
Grants, Funding, and Fellowships
Guidelines, Journals, Other Publications
Key Organizations
Legislation
Meetings and Conferences
State Resources
HSR Topics
Aging Population Issues
Comparative Effectiveness Research (CER)
Child Health Services Research
Evidence-Based Practice and Health Technology Assessment
Health Care Reform, Health Economics, and Health Policy
Health Disparities
Health Informatics
Public Health Systems and Services Research
Quality
Rural Health

Brown ArrowData, Tools, and Statistics

HSR Information Central is not an index of all health services resources on the Web. Rather, it contains selective links representing a sample of available information. Items are selected for their quality, authority of authorship, uniqueness, and appropriateness.

Databases/Repositories

Federal

  • AGing Integrated Database (AGID) - (Administration on Aging (AOA) U.S.)  - On-line query system based on AoA-related data files and surveys, and includes population characteristics from the Census Bureau for comparison purposes. The system allows users to produce customized tables in a step-by-step process and output the results in print or spreadsheet form.
  • AHRQ Kids' Inpatient Database - (Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ))  - The Kid's Inpatient Database (KID)is produced every 3 years and is a unique and powerful nationwide database of hospital stays for children. It is a sample of pediatric discharges (age 20 or younger at admission) from community, non-rehabilitation hospitals from States participating in HCUP. The KID is the only dataset on hospital use, outcomes, and charges designed to study children's use of hospital services in the United States.
  • American Fact Finder - (U.S. Census Bureau)  - Source for finding population, housing, economic, and geographic data from the national to the local level.
  • Atlas of Rural and Small-Town America - (United States Department of Agriculture (USDA))  - This Internet-based information system allows one to manipulate various socioeconomic data series used in many Economic Resource Service (ERS) products. Use the interactive tools to create and manipulate charts, maps, and tables-including multidimensional tables, such as poverty rates by metro/nonmetro status.
  • CDC Wonder - (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC))  - Wide-ranging Online Data for Epidemiologic Research. Access statistical research data published by CDC; Public-use data sets about deaths, cancer incidence, HIV and AIDS, tuberculosis, vaccinations, births, census data and many other topics are available for query.
  • ChildStats.gov - (Federal Interagency Forum on Child and Family Statistics)  - This Website offers easy access to statistics and reports on children and families, including: family and social environment, economic circumstances, health care, physical environment and safety, behavior, education and health. The Forum fosters coordination, collaboration, and integration of Federal efforts to collect and report data on conditions and trends for children and families.
  • CMS Chart Series - (Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS))  - Data on spending, operations, and quality of care.
  • CMS Research, Statistics, Data & Systems - (Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS))  - This site provides access to CMS computer data and systems; research studies and reports; statistics, series, and trends; and files for order.
  • Community Health Data Initiative - (National Center for Health Statistics, CDC (NCHS))  - The Community Health Data Initiative is a collaborative effort among government and non-government partners to establish a network of suppliers and demanders of community health data, indicators, and interventions. Its purpose is to help Americans understand health and health care system performance in their communities, thereby sparking and facilitating action to improve performance and value.
  • Comprehensive Epidemiologic Data Resource (CEDR) - (Department of Energy (DOE) U.S.)  - CEDR is a public-use repository of data from occupational and environmental health studies of workers at DOE facilities and nearby community residents.
  • Data Sets: Open Government at HHS - (Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) U.S.)  - Search HHS agency datasets, including an interactive CMS dashboard, which allows the public to visualize and analyze Medicare spending, starting with inpatient hospital spending.
  • Emergency Department Visitors and Visits - Who Used the ER in 2007? icon - (National Center for Health Statistics, CDC (NCHS))  - Report released in May 2010. Key findings include Older adults (aged 75 and over), non-Hispanic black persons, poor persons, and persons with Medicaid coverage were more likely to have had at least one emergency department (ED) visit in a 12-month period than those in other age, race, income, and insurance groups.
  • Emergency Response Safety and Health Database - (National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, CDC (NIOSH))  - The Emergency Response Safety and Health Database (ERSH-DB) is an occupational safety and health database developed by NIOSH for the emergency response community. The ERSH-DB contains accurate and concise information on high-priority chemical, biological and radiological agents that could be encountered by personnel responding to a terrorist event.
  • FedStats - Provides links to Federal data access tools as well as statistics from more than 100 agencies.
  • Geographic Information Systems - (National Cancer Institute, NIH (NCI))  - Serves as a central source of information about GIS and related resources. It consists primarily of links to other relevant sites.
  • Health Data Interactive - (National Center for Health Statistics, CDC (NCHS))  - Tables with national health statistics for infants, children, adolescents, adults, and older adults. Tables can be customized by age, gender, race/ethnicity, and geographic location to explore different trends and patterns.
  • Health Economics Resource Center - (Health Services Research and Development Service, Veterans Administration (HSR&D))  - National center located in Menlo Park, CA that assists VA researchers in assessing the cost-effectiveness of medical care, evaluating the efficiency of VA programs and providers, and conducting high-quality health economics research. Provides aggregate data and findings about veterans. This site includes socio-economic data, the demographic characteristics of veterans, the geographical distribution of the veteran population, and other statistical data and information by veteran program.
  • Health Indicators Warehouse (HIW) - (Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) U.S.)  - The Health Indicators Warehouse serves as the data hub for the HHS Community Health Data Initiative by providing a single source for national, state, and community health indicators.
  • Health Insurance Coverage - (U.S. Census Bureau)  - The Census Bureau collects health insurance data from three surveys: The Annual Social and Ecomonic Supplement to the Current Population Survey; The American Community Survey; and, The Survey of Income and Program Participation. The surveys differ in length and detail of the questionnaire, the number of households interviewed, the methodology used to collect and process the data, and, consequently, in the health insurance estimates produced. Access questionnaires and data.
  • Healthcare Cost & Utilization Project (HCUP) - (Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ))  - Family of healthcare databases and related software tools and products that provide national information and data on patient-level health care.
  • HHS Gateway to Data and Statistics - (HHS Data Council, Department of Health and Human Services)  - Web-based tool that provides access to HHS data and statistics and also brings together key federal health and human services related data and statistics from other sources.
  • HRSA Data Warehouse - (Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA))  - Provides access to information about HRSA programs and related health resources including data on health professional shortage areas, medically underserved areas, and primary care service areas.
  • HRSA National Health Center Data - (Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA))  - Each year HRSA health center grantees are required to report core set of information that is appropriate for monitoring and evaluating performance and for reporting on annual trends. Access national data by year.
  • Integrated Health Interview Series - (Minnesota Population Center, University of Minnesota US, National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, NIH (NICHD))  - NHIS provides invaluable data on health behaviors, conditions, and care. With thousands of variables, large sample size, and sampling frame representative of the non-institutionalized civilian population, NHIS is also a potential tool for teaching statistics.
  • Medicare Coverage Database - (Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS))  - The Medicare Coverage Database (MCD) contains all National Coverage Determinations (NCDs) and Local Coverage Determinations (LCDs), local policy articles, and proposed NCD decisions. The database also includes several other types of national coverage policy related documents, including national coverage analyses (NCAs), coding analyses for labs (CALs), Medicare Evidence Development & Coverage Advisory Committee (MedCAC) proceedings, and Medicare coverage guidance documents.
  • National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) - (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC))  - The Nation's principal health statistics agency. Looks at outcomes, access, literature synthesis, public reporting, underserved, quality, data collection methods, etc. Access data, reports, surveys, and tools.
  • National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism Databases Resources - (National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA))  - Links to datasets such as COMBINE (Combined Pharmacotherapies and Behavioral Interventions for Alcohol Dependence), Alcohol and Alcohol Problems Science Database (commonly referred to as ETOH), the Alcohol Policy Information System (APIS), etc.
  • Nationwide Emergency Department Sample - (Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ))  - The Nationwide Emergency Department Sample (NEDS) is one in a family of databases and software tools developed as part of the Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project (HCUP), a Federal-State-Industry partnership sponsored by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. HCUP data inform decision-making at the national, State, and community levels.
  • Nationwide Inpatient Sample (NIS) - (Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ))  - The HCUP Nationwide Inpatient Sample (NIS) is a set of longitudinal hospital inpatient databases included in the HCUP family. These databases are created by AHRQ through a Federal-State-Industry partnership.
  • NHQRDRNet Online Query System - (Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ))  - Online query system that allows you to access national and state data on the quality of, and access to, health care from scientifically credible measures and data sources. This is an interactive tool to explore data from the National Healthcare Quality & Disparities Reports.
  • NIMH Limited Access Data Sets - (National Institute of Mental Health, NIH (NIMH))  - Web page provides information on limited access data sets and how to gain access to them.
  • PopSciGrid Community Health Data Portal - (National Cancer Institute, NIH (NCI))  - Evolving platform demonstrating how health behavior, policy, and demographic data can be integrated, visualized, and communicated to empower communities and support new avenues of research and policy for cancer prevention and control.
  • Safety Net Monitoring - (Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ))  - Baseline data and tools to help monitor the status of local safety nets in providing health care to low-income and other vulnerable populations.
  • SEER-Medicare Linked Database - (National Cancer Institute, NIH (NCI))  - SEER-Medicare data reflect the linkage of two large population-based sources of data that provide detailed information about elderly persons with cancer. The data can be used for an array of epidemiological and health services research.
  • Social Security Administration Data - The Office of Research, Evaluation, and Statistics under the Deputy Commissioner of Retirement and Disability Policy is the agency's source for statistics on the impact and operations of the Old-Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance and Supplemental Security Income programs and on the earnings of the working and beneficiary populations. Download data sets.
  • Social Security Statistical Tables - (Office of the Chief Actuary, U.S. Social Security Administration)  - Links to statistical tables, i.e., old-age and survivors insurance trust fund.
  • SSI Annual Statistical Report/Supplement - (Social Security Administration (SSA))  - Since 1974, the Supplemental Security Income (SSI) program has guaranteed a minimum level of income for needy aged, blind, or disabled individuals. Each year, a report or supplement is issued that presents data on the SSI program and the people who receive benefits from it.
  • State Cancer Profiles - (National Cancer Institute, NIH (NCI))  - The objective of the State Cancer Profiles website is to provide a system to characterize the cancer burden in a standardized manner in order to motivate action, integrate surveillance into cancer control planning, characterize areas and demographic groups, and expose health disparities. The focus is on cancer sites for which there are evidence based control interventions. Interactive graphics and maps provide visual support for deciding where to focus cancer control efforts.
  • United States Data Renal System - (Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, NIH (NIDDK))  - Access and request data, annual reports, presentations and slides. The United States Renal Data System (USRDS) is a national data system that collects, analyzes, and distributes information about end-stage renal disease (ESRD) in the United States. The USRDS is funded directly by the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK) in conjunction with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). USRDS staff collaborates with members of CMS, the United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS), and the ESRD networks, sharing datasets and actively working to improve the accuracy of ESRD patient information.
  • VA Data Sources - (Health Services Research and Development Service, Veterans Administration (HSR&D))  - Links to data sources and data sets within the VA. Includes instructions on how to request permission to access VA data.
  • Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System - (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC))  - Monitors priority health-risk behaviors and the prevalence of obesity and asthma among youth and young adults. The YRBSS includes a national school-based survey conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and state, territorial, tribal, and local surveys conducted by state, territorial, and local education and health agencies and tribal governments.
  • Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System (YRBSS) - (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC))  - The Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System (YRBSS) monitors health-risk behaviors that contribute to the leading causes of death and disability among youth and adults, including behaviors that contribute to unintentional injuries and violence, tobacco use, alcohol and other drug use, unhealthy dietary behaviors, and physical activity.

Other (Non-Federal)

  • Dartmouth Atlas of Health Care - (Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy & Clinical Practice US)  - Incorporates 25 million data points about national, regional and local health care markets, as well as individual hospitals and their affiliated physicians, which rwjf.org will use to create interactive maps and features.
  • Evidence Database on Aging Care (EDAC) - (New York Academy of Medicine)  - An online database to help scholars, policy analysts, and advocates stay on top of the latest research in aging care, including social services, and care coordination. The database is maintained by The Social Work leadership Academy at The New York Academy of Medicine.
  • Medicare Chartbook, 2010 - (Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF) US)  - This chartbook provides the most recent and reliable data available about the Medicare program and the 47 million seniors and younger people with disabilities who get health insurance coverage through the program.
  • Milliman Medical Index - (Milliman US)  - The fifth annual Milliman Medical Index™ (MMI™) measures average annual medical spending for a typical American family of four covered by an employer-sponsored preferred provider organization (PPO) program. The MMI provides a consistent benchmark of healthcare benefit costs by annually assessing the changes in those costs over the most recent five-year period.
  • Multinational Comparisons of Health Systems Data, 2008 - (Commonwealth Fund)  - This chartbook uses data from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development to compare the health care systems of nine countries: Australia, Canada, France, Germany, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Topics include: health care spending and health insurance coverage, hospitals, long-term care, physicians, pharmaceuticals, prevention, and mortality.
  • QOLID - Quality of Life Instruments Database - (Mapi Research Institute)  - Provides limited free access to information on Quality of Life (QOL) and Patient Reported Outcomes (PRO) instruments. In-depth information is available on a paid subscription basis.
  • The Quality Data Set (QDS)Framework - (National Quality Forum (NQF) USA)  - Provides a common technological framework for defining clinical data necessary to measure performance and accelerate improvement in patients' quality of care. By providing a common language to describe the information within quality measures, the QDS enables quality measurement from a variety of electronic sources, including electronic health records (EHRs), personal health records (PHRs), registries, and health information exchanges (HIEs). The QDS framework is applicable to all care settings a patient is likely to use in his or her lifetime. This QDS framework creates a dynamic product that will enable versioning, growth, and expansion to meet future needs for measurement and guideline implementation.

Health Statistics

  • Breast Cancer Surveillance Consortium (BCSC): Data & Statistics - (National Cancer Institute, NIH (NCI))  - Provides information on the variables of major interest to the BCSC, such as demographic data and health history of women who come to participating radiology facilities for mammograms. Also provided are statistics that provide an overview of the data collected.
  • Cancer statistics - (National Cancer Institute, NIH (NCI))  - Provides cancer statistics on incidence and survival data from 14 population-based cancer registries and three supplemental registries covering approximately 26 percent of the US population.
  • CDC Health Disparities and Inequalities Report - United States, 2011 - (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC))  - Health disparities are differences in health outcomes between groups that reflect social inequalities. Despite progress over the past 20 years in reducing this problem, racial/ethnic, economic and other social disparities in health still exists and need to be addressed. This report is the first in a periodic series examining health disparities in the United States.
  • CMS Research, Statistics, Data & Systems - (Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS))  - This site provides access to CMS computer data and systems; research studies and reports; statistics, series, and trends; and files for order.
  • County Health Rankings - (Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF), University of Wisconsin)  - Provides county-by-county health rankings in each of the 50 states, explanations of each health factor, and actionable strategies to improve the health of communities across the nation.
  • Data Briefs - (National Center for Health Statistics, CDC (NCHS))  - Data Briefs are statistical publications that provide information about current public health topics in a straightforward format. Each report takes a complex data subject and summarizes it into text and graphics that provide readers with easily comprehensible information in a compact publication.
  • Early Releases - (National Center for Health Statistics, CDC (NCHS))  - The National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) Early Release Program provides very timely estimates of key health and health-related indicators.
  • Emergency Department Visitors and Visits - Who Used the ER in 2007? icon - (National Center for Health Statistics, CDC (NCHS))  - Report released in May 2010. Key findings include Older adults (aged 75 and over), non-Hispanic black persons, poor persons, and persons with Medicaid coverage were more likely to have had at least one emergency department (ED) visit in a 12-month period than those in other age, race, income, and insurance groups.
  • FastStats A-Z - (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), National Center for Health Statistics, CDC (NCHS))  - The FastStats site provides quick access to statistics on topics of public health importance and is organized alphabetically. Links are provided to publications that include the statistics presented, to sources of more data, and to related web pages.
  • Green Book, 2004 - (U.S. House of Representatives)  - The House Ways and Means Committee Green Book, WMCP:108-6, provides program descriptions and historical data on a wide variety of social and economic topics, including Social Security, employment, earnings, welfare, child support, health insurance, the elderly, families with children, poverty and taxation. Links to past Green Books can be found here as well.
  • Health Data Interactive - (National Center for Health Statistics, CDC (NCHS))  - Tables with national health statistics for infants, children, adolescents, adults, and older adults. Tables can be customized by age, gender, race/ethnicity, and geographic location to explore different trends and patterns.
  • Health Indicators 2011 - (Canadian Institute for Health Information)  - Annual report containing the most recently available health indicators data from the Canadian Institute for Health Information and Statistics Canada. Presents national trends over time for selected indicators focusing on the following six themes: heart attacks and cardiac revascularization; stroke; women's health and men's health-selected surgical procedures; hip fractures; joint replacements; and preventing hospital admissions. Download PDF version.
  • Health, United States - (National Center for Health Statistics, CDC (NCHS))  - Annual report on trends in health statistics. The report consists of a chartbook that illustrates major trends in the health of Americans, and a trend tables section of detailed data tables. Refer to Appendix I for data sources.
  • Health, United States, 2009 with Special Feature on Medical Technology icon - (National Center for Health Statistics, CDC (NCHS))  - Prepared by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Center for Health Statistics from data gathered by state and federal health agencies and through ongoing national surveys. Features a special section on medical technology, and finds that the rate of magnetic resonance imaging, known as MRI, and computed and positron emission tomography or CT/PET scans, ordered or provided, tripled between 1996 and 2007.
  • Integrated Health Interview Series - (Minnesota Population Center, University of Minnesota US, National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, NIH (NICHD))  - NHIS provides invaluable data on health behaviors, conditions, and care. With thousands of variables, large sample size, and sampling frame representative of the non-institutionalized civilian population, NHIS is also a potential tool for teaching statistics.
  • National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) - (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC))  - The Nation's principal health statistics agency. Looks at outcomes, access, literature synthesis, public reporting, underserved, quality, data collection methods, etc. Access data, reports, surveys, and tools.
  • NCI Cancer Mortality Maps & Graphs - (National Cancer Institute, NIH (NCI))  - Provides interactive maps, graphs (accessible to the blind and visually-impaired), text, tables and figures showing geographic patterns and time trends of cancer death rates for the time period 1950-1994 for more than 40 cancers
  • Older Americans 2010: Key Indicators of Well-Being - (National Center for Health Statistics, CDC (NCHS), National Institute on Aging (NIA))  - provides an updated, accessible compendium of indicators, drawn from the most reliable official statistics about the well-being of Americans primarily age 65 and older. The indicators are categorized into five broad areas-population, economics, health status, health risks and behaviors, and health care. The 155-page report contains data on 37 key indicators.
  • Prostate Cancer Outcomes Study (PCOS) - (National Cancer Institute, NIH (NCI))  - PCOS is the first population-based evaluation of health-related quality-of-life issues for prostate cancer patients conducted on a multi-regional scale. Information about the patient population, data collection, and related research projects and publications is included.
  • Quick Health Data Online - (Office on Women's Health, HHS (OWH))  - State and county level data available by gender, race and ethnicity. Categories include demographics, mortality, natality, reproductive health, violence, prevention, disease, and mental health.
  • State Cancer Profiles - (National Cancer Institute, NIH (NCI))  - The objective of the State Cancer Profiles website is to provide a system to characterize the cancer burden in a standardized manner in order to motivate action, integrate surveillance into cancer control planning, characterize areas and demographic groups, and expose health disparities. The focus is on cancer sites for which there are evidence based control interventions. Interactive graphics and maps provide visual support for deciding where to focus cancer control efforts.
  • Substance Abuse and Mental Health Statistics - (Substance Abuse & Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA))  - National data on alcohol, tobacco, and illicit drug use. Also included are data on mental health topics including depression, serious psychological distress, and suicidal thoughts and attempts.

International

  • Canadian Statistics - (Statistics Canada)  - Summary tables are organized by Subject including Health, Population and Demography and Social Conditions.
  • Database of Promoting Health Effectiveness Reviews (DoPHER) - (Evidence for Policy and Practice Information and Co-ordinating Centre (EPPI-Centre) UK)  - Focused coverage of systematic and non-systematic reviews of effectiveness in health promotion and public health worldwide. This register currently contains details of over 2,500 reviews of health promotion and public health effectiveness.
  • Global Health Observatory (GHO) - (World Health Organization (WHO))  - WHO's gateway to health-related statistics from around the world. GHO covers global health priorities such as the health-related Millennium Development Goals, women and health, mortality and burden of disease, disease outbreaks, health equity, and health systems.
  • GlobalHealthFacts.org - (Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF))  - Global data on HIV/AIDS, malaria, TB and other key health and socio-economic indicators. The data are displayed in tables, charts, and color-coded maps and can be downloaded for custom analyses.
  • Health Indicators 2011 - (Canadian Institute for Health Information)  - Annual report containing the most recently available health indicators data from the Canadian Institute for Health Information and Statistics Canada. Presents national trends over time for selected indicators focusing on the following six themes: heart attacks and cardiac revascularization; stroke; women's health and men's health-selected surgical procedures; hip fractures; joint replacements; and preventing hospital admissions. Download PDF version.
  • Human Development Report (United Nations) - (United Nations)  - The Human Development Report (HDR) presents a wealth of statistical information on different aspects of human development. Links to other background materials, data resources and on-going debates and discussions on human development statistics.
  • ISPOR International Digest of Databases - (International Society for Pharmacoeconomics and Outcomes Research (ISPOR) US)  - Electronic index (Digest) of key attributes of health care databases around the world available at the ISPOR website, which is accessible to the public. The Digest is a compendium of 194 databases. These databases list key attributes of health care data from around the world.
  • Social Science Data Archives - Europe - (Council of European Social Science Data Archives (CESSDA))  - List of data archives in Europe. Provides access to 25,000 data collections, delivering over 70,000 data collections per annum and acquiring a further 1,000 data collections each year.
  • United Nations Statistics Division (UN Data) - UN Data compiles and disseminates global statistical information, develops standards and norms for statistical activities, and supports countries' efforts to strengthen their national statistical systems.

Search for Tools

  • Medicaid.gov - (Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS))  - This website is devoted to the policies - and the people - of Medicaid and the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP).

Surveys and Tools

  • Health Disparities Cost Impact Tool - (National Business Group on Health (NBGH) US, Urban Institute (UI))  - This interactive tool was designed to help you estimate the economic impact of health disparities in a company's diverse workforce, in terms of direct medical costs and lost workdays for a variety of health conditions. It utilizes annual employer-sponsored insurance data from the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS).

Federal and Miscellaneous Surveys and Tools

  • Access Tools - (Bureau of the Census U.S.)  - U.S. Census Bureau - Links to data access tools from the U.S. Census Bureau (e.g., American Fact Finder, Data Ferrett, Censtats, etc.)
  • AHRQ - Tools and Resources to Help Communities Prepare for Hurricane Season - (Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ))  - AHRQ offers tools to help communities prepare for and respond to hurricane events and other natural disasters. New additions include: Disaster Alternate Care Facilities, Hospital Evacuation Decision Guide, Hospital Assessment and Recovery Guide, and The Essentials: Mass Medical Care with Scarce Resources. Other tools featured on the Web page offer assistance with issues such as caring for children, transporting patients from one facility to another, nursing home needs, reopening shuttered hospitals to meet surge demand and using community call centers for crisis support.
  • Alcohol Epidemiologic Data Directory - (National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA))  - Current listing of surveys and other relevant data suitable for epidemiologic research on alcohol.
  • American Fact Finder - (U.S. Census Bureau)  - Source for finding population, housing, economic, and geographic data from the national to the local level.
  • Basis-32 - (Medical Outcomes Trust)  - This instrument is a 32-item self-administered questionnaire.
  • Bureau of the Census (U.S.), Health Insurance - (Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) U.S.)  - The Census Bureau collects health insurance data from two national surveys:(1) The Annual Social and Economic Supplement (ASEC) to the Current Population Survey (CPS)and (2) Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP).
  • CAHPS® Hospital Survey (H-CAHPS) - (Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ))  - Public-private initiative to develop standardized surveys of patients' experiences with ambulatory and facility-level care.
  • Center for Medicare & Medicaid Innovation - (Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS))  - Established by the Affordable Care Act, the Center for Innovation is a new engine for revitalizing and sustaining Medicare, Medicaid, and the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) as well as for improving the health care system for all Americans. The Innovation Center tests innovative care and payment models and encourages widespread adoption of practices that deliver better health care at lower costs.
  • Center for Studying Health System Change - The CTS includes periodic national surveys of households and physicians. For the first four rounds, the survey samples were concentrated in 60 communities that were randomly selected to provide a representative profile of change across the U.S. Among these communities, are 48 "large" metropolitan areas (with populations greater than 200,000), from which 12 communities were randomly selected to be studied in depth. Those 12 communities have larger survey samples and also comprise the communities used for the site visits. The latest rounds of the physician and household surveys, which are currently underway, are nationally representative but will not support community-level analyses.
  • Children of Immigrants Data Tool - (Urban Institute (UI))  - Interactive tool designed to generate charts and tables with indicators on children, age 0 to 17, for the United States and for the 50 states and the District of Columbia using data from the American Community Survey.
  • CMS Health Literacy Toolkit - (Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS))  - Provides a detailed and comprehensive set of tools to help make written material in printed formats easier for people to read, understand, and use.
  • Community Tracking Study Physician Survey - (Center for Studying Health System Change)  - The Community Tracking Study (CTS) Physician Survey was conducted in 1996-97, 1998-99, 2000-01 and 2004-05. Each of the first three surveys included responses from approximately 12,000 physicians; the fourth included more than 6,600 physicians. Data collection was focused primarily on physicians practicing in 60 randomly selected U.S. communities, allowing analyses to be conducted at both the national and community level. The CTS Physician Surveys were conducted by telephone by The Gallup Organization. Many of the same questions were asked during each round of the CTS Physician Survey, allowing researchers to track changes over time. In 2008, the CTS Physician Survey was replaced by the HSC Health Tracking Physician Survey, which included information from more than 4,700 physicians.
  • Dartmouth Atlas of Health Care - (Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy & Clinical Practice US)  - Incorporates 25 million data points about national, regional and local health care markets, as well as individual hospitals and their affiliated physicians, which rwjf.org will use to create interactive maps and features.
  • Data Methods Toolkit - (Urban Institute (UI))  - Provides information on qualitative methods which are most often used in implementation research and quantitative methods most often used in impact evaluation
  • EBRI/Commonwealth Fund Consumerism in Health Care Survey - (Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI))  - The first EBRI/Commonwealth Fund Consumerism in Health Care Survey was conducted to provide reliable national data on the growth of high deductible plans and their impact on the behavior and attitudes of health care consumers.
  • FedStats - Provides links to Federal data access tools as well as statistics from more than 100 agencies.
  • GovTrack - An independent tool to help the public research and track the activities in the U.S. Congress.
  • HCUPnet - (Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ))  - On-line query system based on data from the Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project (HCUP) that provides access to health statistics and information on hospital inpatient and emergency department utilization.
  • Health and Retirement Study (HRS) - (National Institute on Aging (NIA))  - The University of Michigan HRS surveys more than 22,000 Americans over the age of 50 every two years. A Longitudinal Study of Health, Retirement, and Aging, sponsored by the National Institute on Aging.
  • Health Disparities Calculator - (National Cancer Institute, NIH (NCI))  - Statistical software designed to generate multiple summary measures to evaluate and monitor health disparities (HD). HD*Calc was created as an extension of SEER*Stat that allows the user to import SEER Data or other population based health data such as National Health Interview Survey, California Health Interview Survey, Tobacco Use Supplement to the Current Population Survey, and National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey.
  • Health Insurance Coverage - (U.S. Census Bureau)  - The Census Bureau collects health insurance data from three surveys: The Annual Social and Ecomonic Supplement to the Current Population Survey; The American Community Survey; and, The Survey of Income and Program Participation. The surveys differ in length and detail of the questionnaire, the number of households interviewed, the methodology used to collect and process the data, and, consequently, in the health insurance estimates produced. Access questionnaires and data.
  • Health Services & Economics Survey Instruments - (National Cancer Institute, NIH (NCI))  - Provides access to several survey instruments for studies related to health services and economics, as well as links to the National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) and the California Health Interview Survey (CHIS).
  • Healthcare.Gov - (Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) U.S., Hospital Quality Alliance US)  - This tool provides a listing of U.S. hospitals, including hospital demographics (location, hospital type) and 44 quality measures. Hospital Compare includes information on some Department of Veterans Affairs medical centers.
  • HHS Gateway to Data and Statistics - (HHS Data Council, Department of Health and Human Services)  - Web-based tool that provides access to HHS data and statistics and also brings together key federal health and human services related data and statistics from other sources.
  • HRET Disparities Toolkit - (Health Research and Educational Trust (HRET))  - Web-based tool that provides hospitals, health systems, clinics, and health plans information and resources for systematically collecting race, ethnicity, and primary language data from patients.
  • HRSA Data Snapshot - (Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA))  - Access HRSA health centers data, by year, by using HRSA Access Data Tools such as Data Snapshot, demographic trends, and data comparisons.
  • Kaiser Fast Facts - (Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF) US)  - This is a health policy resource featuring "QuickTakes" and "Kaiser Slides"- two tools providing direct access to facts, data and slides about the nation's health care system and programs.
  • Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS) - (Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ))  - The Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS) is a set of large-scale surveys of families and individuals, their medical providers, and employers across the United States. MEPS is the most complete source of data on the cost and use of health care and health insurance coverage.
  • Medicare Contractor Provider Satisfaction Survey (MCPSS) Public Report. icon - (Mathematica Policy Research, Inc.)  - The Medicare Contractor Provider Satisfaction Survey elicits information from a sample of hospitals, physicians, skilled nursing facilities, home health agencies, clinical laboratories, and other providers and suppliers. Medicare contractors perform a variety of services for providers including claims processing, provider inquiries, enrollment, education, appeals, audits, and medical review.
  • MEPSnet Query Tools - (Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ))  - Provides easy access to Medical Expenditure Survey Panel statistics on health care use, expenditures, sources of payment, and insurance coverage.
  • My Own Network, Powered by AHRQ (MONAHRQ) - (Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ))  - MONAHRQ is a software product that enables organizations to input their own inpatient hospital administrative data and generate a data-driven Web site. MONAHRQ analyzes, summarizes, and presents information in a format ready for use by consumers and other decision-makers. Organizations host the new tool on their own Web server and populate it with their own hospital administrative data.
  • National Home and Hospice Care Survey (NHHCS) - (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC))  - The 2007 National Home and Hospice Care Survey (NHHCS) is one in a continuing series of nationally representative sample surveys of U.S. home health and hospice agencies. It is designed to provide descriptive information on home health and hospice agencies, their staffs, their services, and their patients. NHHCS was first conducted in 1992 and was repeated in 1993, 1994, 1996, 1998, and 2000, and most recently in 2007.
  • National Surgical Quality Improvement Program (NSQIP) - (American College of Surgeons (ACS))  - Six years of private sector experience has demonstrated the effectiveness of the NSQIP as a quality improvement tool and as a source of new clinical knowledge for hospitals outside the VA system. The ACS NSQIP is available to all private sector hospitals that meet the minimum participation requirements, complete a hospital agreement, and pay an annual fee of $35,000.
  • National Survey of Family Growth - (National Center for Health Statistics, CDC (NCHS))  - The National Survey of Family Growth (NSFG) gathers information on family life, marriage and divorce, pregnancy, infertility, use of contraception, and men's and women's health.
  • National Survey on Drug Use & Health - (Substance Abuse & Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA))  - Links to the various surveys and data collected by the Office of Applied Studies via ther National Survey on Drug Use & Health.
  • NHANES Web Tutorial - (National Center for Health Statistics, CDC (NCHS))  - Access NHANES course tutorial as well as Survey Orientation, Preparing an Analytic Dataset, and Survey Design courses.
  • NHQRDRNet Online Query System - (Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ))  - Online query system that allows you to access national and state data on the quality of, and access to, health care from scientifically credible measures and data sources. This is an interactive tool to explore data from the National Healthcare Quality & Disparities Reports.
  • NIH RePORTER (RePORT Expenditures & Results) - (National Institutes of Health (NIH))  - The RePORT (Research Portfolio Online Reporting Tools) website provides access to a variety of reporting tools, reports, data, and analyses of NIH research activities. One of the tools available on the RePORT site is the RePORTER (RePORT Expenditures and Results) module. RePORTER is an electronic tool that allows users to search a repository of NIH-funded research projects and access publications and patents resulting from NIH funding.
  • ProClarity Software - (Health Services Research and Development Service, Veterans Administration (HSR&D))  - A brief description of using ProClarity software for accessing the Veterans Health Administration Financial and Clinical Data Mart (FCDM).
  • PubMed - (National Library of Medicine (NLM) U.S.)  - PubMed comprises more than 20 million citations for biomedical literature from MEDLINE, life science journals, and online books.
  • PubMed Health - (National Library of Medicine (NLM) U.S.)  - PubMed Health is a consumer health Web site produced by the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI), a division of the National Library of Medicine (NLM) at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). PubMed Health provides up-to-date information on diseases, conditions, injuries, drugs, supplements, treatment options, and healthy living, with a special focus on comparative effectiveness research, in particular that research which evaluates the available evidence of the benefits and harms of different treatment options for different groups of people.
  • The Quality Data Set (QDS)Framework - (National Quality Forum (NQF) USA)  - Provides a common technological framework for defining clinical data necessary to measure performance and accelerate improvement in patients' quality of care. By providing a common language to describe the information within quality measures, the QDS enables quality measurement from a variety of electronic sources, including electronic health records (EHRs), personal health records (PHRs), registries, and health information exchanges (HIEs). The QDS framework is applicable to all care settings a patient is likely to use in his or her lifetime. This QDS framework creates a dynamic product that will enable versioning, growth, and expansion to meet future needs for measurement and guideline implementation.
  • Quality Diagnostic Tools for States - (Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ))  - The Quality Diagnostic Tools for States program consists of events and technical assistance opportunities that disseminate and encourage the use of AHRQ Quality Improvement tools to support state policymakers with their health care quality improvement efforts.
  • QualityNet - (Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS))  - Tool for use by hospitals to electronically submit their notice of participation for the Hospital Inpatient Quality Reporting Program- formerly known as Reporting Hospital
  • RAND COMPARE - (RAND Corporation USA)  - COMPARE is a transparent, evidence-based approach to providing information and tools to help policymakers, the media, and other interested parties understand, design, and evaluate health policies.
  • ResDAC (Research Data Assistance Center) - (University of Minnesota)  - A CMS contractor that provides free assistance to academic, government and non-profit researchers interested in using Medicare and/or Medicaid data for their research. ResDAC is staffed by a consortium of epidemiologists, public health specialists, health services researchers, biostatisticians, and health informatics specialists from the University of Minnesota.
  • Rural Health Information Technology Toolkit - (Rural Assistance Center (RAC))  - This toolkit developed by the Rural Assistance Center (RAC) and the National Rural Health Resource Center (The Center) is designed to help rural providers find resources for HIT, electronic health records (EHR), meaningful use and related topics.
  • Safety Net Monitoring - (Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ))  - Baseline data and tools to help monitor the status of local safety nets in providing health care to low-income and other vulnerable populations.
  • SF 36 Health Survey - (Medical Outcomes Trust)  - Link to information on the SF-36, a multi-purpose, short-form health survey instrument with 36 questions. It yields an 8-scale profile of functional health and well-being scores as well as psychometrically-based physical and mental health summary measures and a preference-based health utility index. It is a generic measure, as opposed to one that targets a specific age, disease, or treatment group.
  • Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results Program (SEER) - (National Cancer Institute, NIH (NCI))  - The SEER Program is a source of information on cancer incidence and survival in the United States. It also includes a section on Cancer Rates and Risk Factors, and information on statistics, databases, data collection tools, and recent reports.
  • Survey on Patient Safety Culture Database - (Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ))  - In response to interest from hospitals using AHRQ's Hospital Survey on Patient Safety Culture, AHRQ is establishing this database as a central repository for survey data.
  • Tool for Health Plans to Assess their Health Literacy Programs - (America's Health Insurance Plans (AHIP))  - Developed by Emory University researcher Dr. Julie Gazmararian, working with the AHIP Health Literacy Task Force, this tool allows health plans to assess their health literacy programs and to use the assessments in the development and advancement of their initiatives.
  • VA Information Resource Center - (Health Services Research and Development Service, Veterans Administration (HSR&D))  - VIReC develops and disseminates knowledge about databases of interest to VA researchers; provides service to researchers who require information about data resources specific to their research; and represents interests of researchers regarding VA databases and information systems.
  • Why Not the Best? - (Commonwealth Fund)  - Free resource for health care professionals interested in tracking performance on various measures of health care quality. It enables organizations to compare their performance against that of peer organizations, against a range of benchmarks, and over time.
  • Why Not the Best? Comparative Health Care Performance Data - (Commonwealth Fund)  - Free resource for health care professionals interested in tracking performance on various measures of health care quality. It enables organizations to compare their performance against that of peer organizations, against a range of benchmarks, and over time. Case studies and improvement tools spotlight successful improvement strategies of the nation's top performers.
  • Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System - (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC))  - Monitors priority health-risk behaviors and the prevalence of obesity and asthma among youth and young adults. The YRBSS includes a national school-based survey conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and state, territorial, tribal, and local surveys conducted by state, territorial, and local education and health agencies and tribal governments.

State Surveys and Tools

  • California Health Interview Survey (CHIS) - (UCLA Center for Health Policy Research)  - Provides public health information for California's diverse population. Results on a variety of health topics are produced for the entire state and most counties.
  • County Health Rankings - (Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF), University of Wisconsin)  - Provides county-by-county health rankings in each of the 50 states, explanations of each health factor, and actionable strategies to improve the health of communities across the nation.
  • Florida HealthFinder - (State of Florida USA)  - A web-based tool which allows easy access to comprehensive Florida health care information.
  • Medication Error Quality Initiative - (Cecil G. Sheps Center for Health Services Research)  - Mandatory annual reporting of all medication errors observed in nursing homes in the State of North Carolina.
  • Patient Safety Toolbox for States - (National Academy for State Health Policy USA)  - This electronic toolbox is intended to provide states with tools they can use or modify as they develop or improve adverse event reporting systems. The toolbox includes information (policies, practices, forms, reports, methods, and contracts) related to states' reporting systems, links to other Web resources, and fast facts and issues related to patient safety.
  • State Health Access Data Assistance Center (SHADAC) - (University of Minnesota)  - Provides a focal point for coordination of state survey activities on the uninsured; funded by Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and administered by the University of Minnesota School of Public Health.