The information on this page has been provided as a courtesy of the

VA Information Resource Center (VIReC)

The VA maintains numerous national, VISN-level, and local facility data sources. (See Introduction to VA Data.) VIReC provides detailed and summary information about the data sources of particular relevance to VA research. Each data source name is a link that will take you directly to the VIReC information about the data source.

2001 National Survey of Veterans
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 2001 survey included 20,048 completed interviews from both samples and provides data on veterans socio-economic background, military background, health status, health care use, and veterans' understanding of and use of VA benefits.  The data do not include any identifiers that can be linked to other VA data.

VHA ADUSH Enrollment File
The ADUSH Enrollment Monthly File comprises of national statistics on VHA expenditures, enrollment, and patients for the purpose of forecasting enrollment, expenditures, and to perform policy analysis. Each month data are extracted from the following sources: enrollment, eligibility, and income verification data from the VHA Health Eligibility Center (HEC) via an extract from the National Enrollment Database (NED); data related to cost of care from the VHA Allocation Resource Center (ARC), utilization indicators (e.g. annual VHA users) from the VHA Veterans Integrated Service Network (VISN) Support Services Center (VSSC); and death dates from the BIRLS Death File and the SSA Death Master File. The ADUSH Enrollment File is a fiscal year cumulative file. The files are housed at the Austin Automation Center and are in SAS® format. The monthly files are available within two months after the target month ends and the fiscal year-end file (September's file) is noted with an “F” in its name.

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 Automation Center (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 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.

Medical SAS Datasets (National Inpatient & Outpatient Care Data)
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 Automation Center 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
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. (See VIReC Insights Vol. 2 Num. 3 2001  ***Download Adobe Acrobat***)

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.

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.

VA Vital Status Files
The VA Vital Status files are comprised of two files: the Master and Mini files.  The files contain data for everyone who has received care through the VHA since 1992, has enrolled in the VHA, or has received compensation or pension benefits from the VA.  However, the files for Compensation and Pension Mini only cover FY01-FY06, DSS only covers FY02-FY06, and Enrollment source files only cover FY00-FY06, because that's as far back as these files exist.

DATA SOURCES OUTSIDE OF THE VA

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