KAS Cannella, Education/HSR&D, VAMC (Atlanta) & Div of Pulm & Crit Care Med, Emory University; FM Cordi, Education/HSR&D, VAMC (Atlanta) & Div of Pulm & Crit Care Med, Emory University

Objectives: The linkage of clinical data with financial and administrative data has long been sought. Decision Support Service (DSS) was implemented, in part, to address this need. Now, another program, PerspectiveOnline, enhances the array of tools available to clinicians, researchers, administrators, and policymakers. This workshop will enable participants to compare the execution and output of these two programs.

Activities: Through lecture and discussion, an overview of both DSS and PerspectiveOnline will be presented. Researchers will review several studies for which data was obtained using either or both of these programs. A realtime presentation of DSS and PerspectiveOnline will provide participants with a view of programming steps and results. Differences in the programs will be discussed during this time. A period for questions and answers will end the workshop.

Target Audience: This workshop is intended for researchers, clinicians, administrators and policymakers interested in answering clinical, financial, and quality improvement questions using internal and external benchmarking.

Audience Familiarity: Participants should bring to the workshop general familiarity with HSR&D research and interest in using clinical, administrative, and cost data. Familiarity with DSS or PerspectiveOnline is not necessary.