Question

In your opinion, what is the best method to obtain data on a health-related topic? Would you call your local health department, contact your physician, or email the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention? Perhaps you would do none of these. Where would you go to obtain data? You will discuss how you can retrieve data on a health-related topic of your choice!

This Discussion is an opportunity for you to explore the practical application of research in health care. Please respond in first person, share personal experiences, and ask questions to further develop your understanding of how to obtain data on a health-related topic. Also cite references and share links to your resources.

National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) - National and state data sets as well as statistic reports. Information about ordering data sets that cannot be downloaded.
CDC Data and Statistics page - much more than NCHS
CDC WONDER - WONDER provides a single point of access to a wide variety of reports and numeric public health data.
Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality - Data and Surveys
Statewide Planning and Research Cooperative System (SPARCS) - Data dictionaries, documentation and request forms. No searchable data online.
U.S. Census Bureau, Current census data including information broken down by state, city, and region.
WHOSIS -- WHO Statistical Information System

Answer 1

At present, obtaining health data has become much more easier, with most of the resources available online. The best ways to obtain healthcare information depends on the purpose. There is a plethora of online resources. When it comes to information available online, credibility is of atmost importance. A lot of the websites, including those of health agencies are designed to dessiminate information to the public and hence may not prove useful as a source of information for research.

As an example, suppose a research focuses on a new drug available in the market for a condition with an older drug that has been in use for some time. The starting point would be to go through the research that has been conducted with the oder drug, especially the ones comparing its action with another. Here are some of the sources of data in such a case

1. Pubmed- Contains extensive data of published studies. It contains index and citations from articles published in MEDLINE.

2. NCHS has extensive data including population surveys, vital records, historical surveys, data on publications etc

3. CDC data and Statistics page contains an indexed system of data and statistics topicwise. It aslo provides tools for data analysis

4. CDC Wonder- CDC Wide-ranging ONline Data for Epidemiologic Research is a public resource that makes health-related data sets available to researchers.

5. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality is the official website of Department of health and human services.

6. WHO website provides public health policies and recommendations bases on consensus data

7.NIH website- has extensive data on healthcare research inUS

8. uptodate- is a useful resource for obtaining the latest recommendations and findings.

Other resouces include Journal websites, websites tailored for specific specialities like AHA/ACC, ACS etc