SAVE THE DATE
AHRQ is sponsoring a workshop in September to facilitate the health
services research community in using data from two AHRQ databases: the
Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS) and the Healthcare Cost and Utilization
Project (HCUP). The workshop will provide researchers with information
on the components and capabilities of the two databases. Participants
would have an opportunity to learn how to extract data for research projects
using either of the data bases. A working knowledge of SAS is required.
Day 1 of this workshop will consist of lectures designed to provide a
general overview of the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS) and the
Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project (HCUP).
On day 2, participants will be given the opportunity to attend sessions
on either MEPS or HCUP; have an opportunity to bring up specific research
questions; and participate in hands-on training. Participants will apply
the knowledge gained from the first day's lectures to formulate a research
plan that utilizes the various MEPS-HC files and linkage capabilities,
OR learn how to use HCUP and its software tools. The day 2 sessions will
be separate concurrent hands-on workshops run for both MEPS and HCUP.
A PC will be available for each participant. Each participant will construct
an analytic file and begin to conduct analyses. Those attending MEPS
hands-on session on 2nd day could bring a CD with their active MEPS project
and get expert help on their research questions. Programmers and AHRQ
staff will be available to provide assistance.
The Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS) collects data on the specific
health services that Americans use, how frequently they use them, the
cost of these services, and how they are paid for, as well as data on
the cost, scope, and breadth of private health insurance held by and
available to the U.S. population. For more information about MEPS, please
visit http://www.meps.ahrq.gov.
The Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project (HCUP) is a family of powerful
health care databases, software tools, and products. HCUP data enable
research on a broad range of topics related to health care, including
cost and quality of health services, medical practice patterns, access
to health care programs, and outcomes of treatments at the national,
State, and local market levels. In addition, HCUP makes available at
no charge a number of software tools to facilitate use of HCUP and other
administrative data. For more information about HCUP, please visit http://www.hcup-us.ahrq.gov.
For any other questions e-mail workshopinfo@ahrq.hhs.gov.