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Public Health Research Guide: Resources for Public Health Educators

An introduction to resources that will assist in Public Health research.

Federal Surveys & Tools - National Library of Medicine

Federal and Miscellaneous Surveys and Tools

  • 2008 Health Tracking Physician Survey: Key Findings Data Bulletin - (Center for Studying Health System Change)  - This data bulletin presents findings from the Center for Studying Health System Change (HSC) 2008 Health Tracking Physician Survey, which covers a wide variety of physician and practice information, from basic physician demographic information, practice organization statistics and assessments of career satisfaction to insurance acceptance, compensation arrangements, and charity care provided. The 2008 survey includes responses from more than 4,700 U.S. physicians who provide at least 20 hours per week of direct patient care.
  • 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.)
  • ADePT: Software Platform for Automated Economic Analysis Poverty and Inequality Research - (World Bank)  - ADePT Health allows users to produce quickly and with a minimal risk of errors most tables that have become standard in applied health equity analysis. The tables emerge in a standardized format, and are based on a set of methods that are widely accepted in the literature. Through its standardized tables, ADePT Health facilitates comparisons of health equity over time within countries, and between countries. The software uses the methods outlined in "Analyzing Health Equity Using Household Survey Data: A Guide to Techniques and Their Implementation" by Owen O'Donnell, Eddy van Doorslaer, Adam Wagstaff and Magnus Lindelow, copies of which can be ordered online or downloaded for free at http://www.worldbank.org/analyzinghealthequity.
  • 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)  - An interactive database that is searchable for data from multiple data sources
  • 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 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))  - Generate charts on the characteristics of children, age 0 to 17, for the United States and for the 50 states and the District of Columbia. Data come from the 2005 and 2006 American Community Survey.
  • 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.
  • Environmental Scan of Instruments to Inform Consumer Choice in Assisted Living Facilities - (Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ))  - Compiled by Westat Inc., this report examines the questionnaires, surveys, and other instruments currently in use to assess the services and quality of care in assisted living facilities across the United States. These tools include consumer-reported instruments, expert observational instruments, and provider-reported tools that evaluate services offered, the physical and cultural environments, staff issues, activities, social support, and contractual issues.
  • FedStats - Provides links to Federal data access tools as well as statistics from more than 100 agencies.
  • Gateway to Data and Statistics - (HHS Data Council, Department of Health and Human Services)  - This web-based tool brings together key health and human services data and statistics.
  • 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))  - A free, on-line query system based on Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project (HCUP) data - provides access to health statistics and information on hospital stays at the National, regional, and State level.
  • 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 Literacy Toolkit - (Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ))  - AHRQ commissioned the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill to develop and test this Health Literacy Universal Precautions Toolkit. The toolkit offers primary care practices a way to assess their services for health literacy considerations, raise awareness of the entire staff, and work on specific areas.
  • 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 and 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.
  • HIVnet - (Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ))  - HIVnet is a tool that provides information on inpatient and outpatient utilization by persons with HIV disease. This information is valuable for service providers, program planners, policymakers, and health services researchers. HIVnet is focused on health services delivery.
  • 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 using HRSA Access Data Tools such as Data Snapshot, demographic trends, and data comparisons.
  • HRSA Knowledge Gateway - (Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA))  - HRSA sponsored website dedicated to providing a centralized portal for communication as well as a forum for sharing the challenges, successes, tools of the trade and lessons learned as a result of quality improvements efforts.
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • Results from the 2008 National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH): National Findings - (Substance Abuse & Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA))  - NSDUH is the primary source of statistical information on the use of illegal drugs by the U.S. population. Conducted by the Federal Government since 1971, the survey collects data by administering questionnaires to a representative sample of the population through face-to-face interviews at the respondent's place of residence. The survey is sponsored by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and is planned and managed by SAMHSA's Office of Applied Studies (OAS).
  • 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.
  • State Snapshots - (Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ))  - The State Snapshots provide state-specific health care quality information including strengths, weaknesses, and opportunities for improvement. The goal is to help State officials and their public- and private-sector partners better understand health care quality and disparities in their State.
  • 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.