Washington University Comparative Effectiveness Administrative Data Repository

Overview. The purpose of this data infrastructure project was to foster efficient and sophisticated use by an interdisciplinary set of investigators of very large administrative health datasets for observational comparative effectiveness research (CER) related to the care and treatment of patients with multiple chronic conditions. Specifically, the research team proposed to supplement and build the necessary administrative data infrastructure to enable Washington University and collaborating partners to use state and national healthcare datasets for observational CER by:

1. Purchasing, storing, and maintaining multiple large administrative databases that can be used for comparative effectiveness health services research.
2. Providing training and support on the ethical and secure use of administrative data for CER.
3. Providing a library of standard programming code for use with large administrative databases to create an economy of scale for efficient CER.
4. Facilitating the collaboration among interdisciplinary investigators using administrative databases for CER.
5. Utilizing the infrastructure to support initiation of new comparative effectiveness studies.
6. Educating physicians, junior investigators, and public health trainees in the use of administrative data for CER.

No data was collected for this infrastructure project. Administrative data were purchased from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (Chronic Condition Warehouse 5 percent random sample, all files except Part D, 2007), AHRQ (nationwide from 1998-2010 and multiple states from 2000-2010), Claritas (2005-2008), and the American Hospital Association Annual Survey (2000-2008).

Data Access. These data are not available from ICPSR. The data are restricted to use by investigators at Washington University (WU) who have a signed Data Use Agreement with the involved agency. Data cannot be shared or removed from the WU Center for Administrative Data secure, HIPAA-compliant server without permission from the involved agency. Questions about the data should be directed to Margaret Olsen, PhD, MPH (molsen@dom.wustl.edu).