Using Administrative Data Banks for Research and Evaluation

This article discusses methods of organizing and checking administrative data banks to increase their usefulness for research and evaluation. Examples are drawn from the studies using the Manitoba Health Services Commission data bank. The various uses of both manual and computerized checks are explained. A problem profile is presented for the Manitoba data bank; this profile summarizes different specific problems, incor porating new threats to internal validity associated with the use of data banks. The improvements in data collection represented by data banks are discussed in terms of developing multiple control group designs.

[1]  P. A. Davies.  Current Pediatric Therapy 8 , 1979 .

[2]  K. N. Williams,et al.  Controlling the use and cost of medical services: the New Mexico Experimental Medical Care Review Organization--a four-year case study. , 1978, Medical care.

[3]  N. Roos,et al.  Assessing the Impact of Tonsillectomies , 1978, Medical care.

[4]  F. Dyck,et al.  Effect of surveillance on the number of hysterectomies in the province of Saskatchewan. , 1977, The New England journal of medicine.

[5]  Noralou P. Roos,et al.  A New Audit Procedure Applied to an Old Question: Is the Frequency of T&A Justified? , 1977, Medical care.

[6]  I. Moscovice.  Development of a method for the analysis of the utilization of resources in an ambulatory care setting , 1977 .

[7]  J. Horne,et al.  Economic Class and Risk Avoidance: Experience under Public Medical Care Insurance , 1976 .

[8]  Philip M. Hauser,et al.  Social Statistics in Use. , 1975 .

[9]  L. Koran,et al.  The reliability of clinical methods, data and judgments (second of two parts). , 1975, The New England journal of medicine.

[10]  H. Newcombe,et al.  Methods for Computer Linkage of Hospital Admission-Separation Records into Cumulative Health Histories , 1975, Methods of Information in Medicine.

[11]  G Wiederhold,et al.  A modular self-describing clinical databank system. , 1975, Computers and biomedical research, an international journal.

[12]  Edgar Streeter Dunn.  Social information processing and statistical systems--change and reform , 1974 .

[13]  H. Blalock.  Beyond Ordinal Measurement: Weak Tests of Stronger Theories , 1974 .

[14]  L. Hendrickson,et al.  Some Sources and Potential Consequences of Errors in Medical Data Recording , 1973, Methods of Information in Medicine.

[15]  David E. Wiley,et al.  The Estimation of Measurement Error in Panel Data , 1970 .

[16]  Donald T. Campbell,et al.  Reforms as Experiments , 1969 .

[17]  C G Sheps,et al.  Delineating episodes of medical care. , 1967, American journal of public health and the nation's health.

[18]  D. Campbell,et al.  Unobtrusive Measures: Nonreactive Research in the Social Sciences , 1966 .

[19]  R. Engle,et al.  MEDICAL DIAGNOSIS: PRESENT, PAST, AND FUTURE. I. PRESENT CONCEPTS OF THE MEANING AND LIMITATIONS OF MEDICAL DIAGNOSIS. , 1963, Archives of internal medicine.