Comparative effectiveness research has great potential for improving healthcare quality and patient outcomes. Determining which treatments work best in real-world settings requires hard evidence to inform choices. The Thomson Reuters MarketScan® Research Databases support the rigorous evaluations necessary for comparative effectiveness research.

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Comprehensive Data To Support Comparative Effectiveness Studies

Comparative effectiveness research is a thorough assessment of the impact of different options available for treating a particular medical condition, given the unique characteristics of a specific patient population. With meaningful measures of the costs of care and treatment outcomes, the MarketScan Research Databases provide actionable information for important formative decisions. The MarketScan family of databases contains data from large employers, managed care organizations, hospitals, and Medicare and Medicaid programs, in the following categories:

  • Individual-level healthcare and dental claims
  • Lab test results
  • Health risk assessments
  • Worker absence, short-term disability, and workers' compensation
  • Hospital discharge information

Retrospective Analysis Of Outcomes

MarketScan databases allow longitudinal, patient-level analyses of health and economic outcomes. Using the data, researchers can evaluate particular procedures, courses of therapy, disease states, patient populations, and settings of care, including:

  • Effectiveness of various procedures
  • Treatment responses in specific patient populations
  • Effectiveness of brand versus generic drugs
  • Impact of disease management programs

Specific Patient Population Studies

The most recent annual release of MarketScan data features 50.4 million covered lives. As the largest convenience sample available in proprietary U.S. claims databases, MarketScan data can support studies of treatment effectiveness within specific age groups, particularly children and those under age 65.

Evaluation Of Treatment Effectiveness Over Time

The MarketScan databases feature exceptional longitudinal integrity over multiple years. MarketScan data provide detailed patient-level information across the continuum of care, including physician office visits, hospitalizations, prescriptions, and carve-out care. Claims databases can be linked to:

  • Health and productivity
  • Health risk assessments
  • Lab results
  • Dental claims
  • Hospital drug information
  • Integration of these data sources allows researchers to study the impact of various factors on treatment effectiveness over time