HSC's Public Use Files
ore than 300 organizations have used data from the 1996-1997
Household Survey and Physician Survey, which were made available in public use
files through HSC's web site in 1998. The various organizations downloading
the data include university faculty and students, researchers at think tanks
and trade associations and government researchers.
Larry Green and his colleagues at the Washington, D.C.-based Center for Policy Studies in Family Practice and Primary Care are using the Physician Survey public use file to understand what factors-e.g., care management, methods of payment and degree of involvement with managed care-correlate with physician malaise, specifically as it relates to specialty groups. The underlying assumption of this study is that it is in the interest of the public and the overall health system to have satisfied physicians.
Green notes that HSC's physician sampling frame is particularly useful, as is the fact that both HSC surveys can be used together to better understand health policy issues. "We applaud the democratization of this type of data set," he said. "There are other relevant data out there, but we can't get our hands on them because they are proprietary. In contrast, this is a wonderful exemplar of how data can be used for the public good."
In addition, RWJF, through its Changes in Health Care Financing and Organization (HCFO) Program, based at the Academy for Health Services Research and Health Policy (AHSRHP), has funded 17 researchers' use of HSC's public use survey data. A conference, jointly sponsored by HSC and AHSRHP, offered a venue for researchers using these data to present their results to national and state policy makers this past June.
