Using Canadian Administrative Databases to Derive Economic Data for Health Technology Assessments
A database is a compilation of information on characteristics and events that is stored in an organized manner. An administrative database in health care meets specific criteria: at least one administrative operation must use the data and consider the database to be essential; the organization that is developing the database must ensure the integrity of the data to comply with legal and administrative requirements for supporting statistical and historical information; and a broad cross section of users must refer to or maintain the data.
In Canadian health care, administrative databases are used to record the details about persons who are registered with provincial health plans and the information on characteristics of inpatient and outpatient hospitalization events, visits to or by physicians or independent health professionals, filled prescriptions, home care visits, and nursing home stays. Analysts can use the information in the databases to describe the utilization and costs that are associated with persons with specific medical conditions or who use specific drugs or services. In particular, analysts can use these data when preparing health technology assessments (HTAs) to assess the economic implications of an intervention. “Health technology” is a broad term that refers to a specific approach to doing something (suchmas diagnosis or treatment), implying that the use of resources is needed for it to be done. An analyst who is preparing an HTA report can use data on the type and quantity of resources to describe and analyze the technology.