VIReC provides detailed and summary information about data sources of particular
relevance to VA research. The VA maintains numerous national, VISN-level,
and local facility data sources. (See Introduction to VA Data .) Furthermore, other government agencies, and non-profit organizations
maintain databases with service-related information.
Below are brief descriptions
of these data sources. The links take users directly to the VIReC information
about the data source.
Please send the VIReC Help Desk your suggestions of additional data sources to be documented by VIReC.
Data Sources Within The VA
The National Survey of
Veterans was conducted by the Office of Policy of the
Department of Veterans Affairs Assistant Secretary
for Policy, Planning, and Preparedness Office. The
purpose of the telephone survey was the collection
of information relevant to planning and budgeting of
VA programs. Information
is collected on a national sample of veterans, as well
as a sample of veterans selected from VA Compensation
and Pension, and Health Care Enrollment files.
The ADUSH Enrollment Monthly File comprises national statistics on VHA expenditures, enrollment, and patients for the purpose of forecasting enrollment, expenditures, and to perform policy analysis. The ADUSH Enrollment File is a fiscal year cumulative file. The files are housed at the Austin Information Technology Center (AITC formerly: CFD; formerly: AAC) and are in SAS® format.
- BIRLS , Beneficiary Identification & Records Locator System - Death File
The Beneficiary Identification Records Locator
System (BIRLS) is a Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Veterans Benefits
Administration (VBA) database containing records of all beneficiaries,
including veterans whose survivors applied for death benefits. An extract
of the BIRLS database is the BIRLS Death File. This file, stored at the
Austin Information Technology Center (AITC formerly: CFD; formerly: AAC)
in SAS format, is available for use by
VA investigators with authorized usage rights . It contains information
on veterans known to be deceased and can be linked to other files by
the veteran's Social Security Number.
- DSS , VA Decision Support System
Decision
Support System data are in local- or facility-level Production Databases
and in National Data Extract (NDE) SAS datasets. NDE SAS datasets of financial
and clinical data are available for access at Austin Information Technology Center (AITC formerly: CFD; formerly: AAC).
Clinical NDEs include
Radiology, Fact of Lab, Lab Results, and Pharmacy. Financial NDEs are Discharge
File, the inpatient Treating Specialty File, and the Outpatient File. Support
for researchers using the clinical NDEs is provided by VIReC, while the
Health Economics Resource Center (HERC) provides more information on financial
NDEs.
- Medicare , VA-Medicare Data for Research
Medicare
data for veterans area available for research to the VA researchers from
VIReC. The data warehoused at the VIReC covers data for calendar years
since 1999. A VA researcher with an approved IRB protocol can request the
data, for which there is no charge.
The VA datasets
most frequently utilized for research are collectively called Medical SAS
Datasets or sometimes National Patient Care Database (NPCD). All inpatient
and outpatient services provided to VHA healthcare users are captured in
various datasets. They are all in SAS format and reside on the Austin Information Technology Center (AITC formerly: CFD; formerly: AAC) mainframe.
- NPCD , National Patient Care Database
The National
Patient Care Database (NPCD) is the source data for the VHA Medical SAS
Datasets. NPCD is the VHA's centralized relational database (a data warehouse)
that receives encounter data from VHA clinical information systems. It
is an Oracle database and not directly accessible to researchers.
- NPPD , National Prosthetics Patient Database ( VIReC Insights Vol.2 Num.3
2001)
NPPD, developed
by the Prosthetic and Sensory Aids Service Strategic Health Care Group
(PSAS), is a database comprising orthotic, prosthetic and sensory devices
dispensed to veterans nationwide. The NPPD was originally developed to
1) oversee and monitor the VA Prosthetic Service, and 2) to provide clinicians
with information regarding prosthetic prescription practices. The NPPD
became available to the VA research community in 2000.
- PBM , Pharmacy Benefits Management
The PBM Database
is a national database of information about all prescriptions dispensed
within the VHA System beginning with fiscal year 1999. Inpatient intravenous
(IV) and unit dose prescription orders dispensed in a VA facility and outpatient
prescription orders filled at a VA Pharmacy or Consolidated Mail Outpatient
Pharmacy (CMOP) are extracted monthly from each Veterans Health Information
Systems Technology & Architecture (VistA) site and loaded into the
PBM Database.
- RAI-MDS, Resident Assessment Instrument - Minimum Data Set
VHA Directive 2001-029 defines the RAI-MDS as "a core set of screening, clinical and functional status elements, including common definitions and coding categories, that forms the foundation of the comprehensive assessment for all residents of long-term care facilities certified to participate in Medicare and Medicaid and in Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Long-term Care and/or Nursing Home Programs accredited under the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organization (JCAHO) Long-term Care Standards."
- VistA , Veterans
health Information Systems & Technology Architecture
VistA
is the main information collection and data management system at Veterans
Health Administration (VHA) healthcare facilities. VistA files include
information on all persons treated at a VA Medical Center, across the full
spectrum of inpatient and outpatient care provided at that facility, and
they provide the most clinical detail of any VA database.
This
file combines death dates from all sources currently
available to VA researchers, including the PTF (VA
Inpatient), BIRLS, Medicare Vital Status, and Social
Security Administration (SSA) death file. There
are two files available: the Master
and Mini files. The Master file contains one
record for each SSN-date of birth (DOB)-gender combination,
and includes all dates of birth, genders, and dates
of death found for each SSN. The Mini file
contains one record for each SSN. An algorithm
is used to select the “best” DOB, gender,
and DOD for each SSN. Both files include the
VA’s Scrambled SSN. A crosswalk file
to real SSNs is available for researchers requiring
real SSNs. These files are now available at
Austin Information Technology Center (AITC formerly: CFD; formerly: AAC)
and require a new functional task code for access.
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