AHRQ UPDATES ON PRIMARY CARE RESEARCH: MCC RESEARCH NETWORK DATA ARCHIVE

doi:10.1370/afm.1650

Scientists studying people with multiple chronic conditions (MCC) need new datasets and research methods to help them examine this growing population. The MCC Research Network data archive (http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/AHRQMCC/) from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) seeks to fill this gap. Using datasets freely available in the data archive, researchers can investigate the interactions of chronic conditions, compare outcomes from different treatments, and discover the most efficient and effective methods of treating patients with MCC.

Find Data

AHRQ’s MCC Research Network data archive provides freely available datasets and documentation as well as additional MCC-related data. Data come from a rich range of sources, including: electronic medical record clinical data, multi-payer claims data, chronic disease registries, Medicaid claims, state psychiatric hospital inpatient data and outpatient mental health services, self-reported home blood sugar and blood pressure data, state cancer registry data, and quality-of-life and physical assessment data obtained from computer-assisted interviews. For many datasets in the archive, researchers can search for variables, studies, and bibliographies, as well as download data in SPSS, SAS, Stata, and ASCII formats.

Share Data

In addition, investigators with MCC-related data are invited to share their data through the AHRQ MCC Research Network data archive. Data deposited in the archive will be freely available for download from the website until at least December 2015. After that time, the datasets will be accessible to Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Science Research (ICPSR) members (which includes most institutions) and available for a cost to non-members. Shared data may include complete data sets, partial data, data documentation, and/or syntax files used to replicate findings. Data released for public dissemination can include: SAS, SPSS, and Stata data files, searchable PDF codebooks, and summary metadata records.

The website also includes a page for investigators to share code, syntax, software, methods, and other tools that they have used in their MCC research to help other investigators working on MCC research.

For more information on the AHRQ MCC Research Network and the data archive, please visit the AHRQ MCC website: http://www.ahrq.gov/research/mccrn.htm.