Data Resources for Health & Medical Research

From the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, you can compare hospitals based on their overall star rating, summarizing up to 57 measures of quality shown on Hospital Compare.

The National Mental Health Services Survey (N-MHSS) is an annual survey of all known mental health treatment facilities in the United States, both public and private.

The Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS) is a set of large-scale surveys of families and individuals, their medical providers, and employers across the United States. MEPS is the most complete source of data on the cost and use of health care and health insurance coverage.

The Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project (HCUP, pronounced "H-Cup") is a family of health care databases and related software tools and products developed through a Federal-State-Industry partnership and sponsored by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ). These databases enable research on a broad range of health policy issues, 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.

The Drug Abuse Warning Network (DAWN) was a public health surveillance system that monitored drug-related hospital emergency department visits in order to report on the impact of drug use, misuse, and abuse in metropolitan areas and across the nation. DAWN was discontinued in 2011, but SAMHSA is developing other sources of data on drug-related emergency visits.

HCUP Statistical Briefs provide health care statistics on hospital inpatient stays, emergency department visits, and ambulatory surgeries. Topics include medical conditions treated, procedures performed, patient populations served, and quality of care. Information is presented in tables and figures, accompanied by explanatory text.