PRC has expertise working with a number of large commercially and publicly funded administrative claims databases, registries, and electronic medical records.
For a complete list of databases with which we have worked, please review this document. To review a comprehensive list of past projects on which we have worked, please visit our project archive.
Chronic Condition Warehouse (CCW):
Quality of Psychopharmacological Medication Prescribing in Nursing Home Residents: Influence on Important Clinical and Patient-Centered Outcomes
This study intends to support efforts to develop and provide psychopharmacological medication quality indicators in order to encourage appropriate psychopharmacological medication use consistent with Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services prescribing guidelines for nursing facilities.
Impact of the Doughnut Hole and Catastrophic Coverage on Medicare Beneficiaries with Heart Failure
This study intends to examine the drug utilization patterns among Medicare Part D enrollees with heart failure as they move through the annual Part D drug benefit phases.
Monitoring Chronic Disease Care and Outcomes Among Elderly Medicare Beneficiaries with Multiple Chronic Diseases
This study examines the relationship between overall disease burden and utilization of recommended drug therapies among beneficiaries with diabetes only; diabetes and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD); and diabetes and COPD and depression.
Sex Differences in Outcomes of Patients with Alzheimer's Dementia
The objective of this application is to establish methodologies to study the effectiveness of existing treatments using newly available national databases, and to identify and incorporate potentially effective modifying factors into comparative effectiveness research of emerging Late Onset Alzheimer's Disease treatments.
Impact of Benefit Design, Cost Sharing, and Utilization Management in the Medicare Part D Benefit
The goal of this research is to increase the value of Medicare prescription coverage under Part D. We plan to examine beneficiary selection into drug plans and the relationship between drug plan characteristics and select medication outcomes for common chronic conditions.
Benchmarking Psychopharmacological Medication Quality in Medicare Beneficiaries Residing in Long-Term Care Facilities
This study plans to define Psychopharmacological Medication Quality Indicators and to describe the medication quality indicators' adherence patterns among Medicare beneficiaries residing in long-term care.
Comparative Effectiveness: Erythropoietic Stimulating Agents in Treatment of MDS
This project examines the use of erythropoietic agents (ESA) in the treatment of patients with myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS). It is designed to assess patient, physician, and health system factors, including external regulatory and insurance coverage changes, associated with any use, and level of ESA use, and then to compare clinical benefits, risks, and costs associated with difference levels of ESA exposure, compared to the alternative of no ESA use.
Chronic Renal Insufficiency Cohort (CRIC):
Do patient safety events account for adverse outcomes in CKD?
The study aims to determine the frequency of medication errors and metabolic disturbances as patient safety incidents that are related to chronic kidney disease in a cohort with kidney disease and examine whether the incidence of these events increase the risk of adverse outcomes. The study also aims to examine the incidence of these events in members of the cohort who have been hospitalized and determine whether the incidence increases the risk of adverse outcomes.
Maryland Mental Health Claims and CHESSIE:
Quality Assurance of Psychotropic Medication Use within the Baltimore City Child Welfare System
The goal of this project is to gather information on the quality assurance of psychotropic medication use among children and adolescents in the Baltimore City child welfare system, specifically to conduct a quality assurance evaluation to identify questionable psychotropic prescribing practices for children in the child welfare system. The long-term goal is to establish a data collaborative across agencies to sustain comprehensive ongoing monitoring and quality assurance.
MCBS (Medicare Current Beneficiary Survey):
Patient Performance Status: Prediction Model Development and Validation
An objective of this study is to develop and validate a measure for performance status based on data elements routinely available from enrollment and claims files.
Coverage, Access, and Spending on Specialty Drugs for Oncology in the Medicare Beneficiary Population
The purpose of this research is to examine how the structure of coverage and provider reimbursement affects use of cancer-related specialty drugs in the Medicare population. The Medicare program provides coverage for specialty products used in oncology either through the Part B program or Part D prescription drug benefit. The fragmented structure of coverage for specialty drugs under Medicare creates financial incentives to patients and providers that affect drug treatment choices, yet may not result in optimal treatment or lowest cost to the Medicare program. Specialty drugs comprise an increasing proportion of the treatments available for patients with cancer, and account for a growing proportion of drug spending within the Medicare program and for insurers and consumers more broadly.
Multiple Data Sources:
Evaluation of the Maryland Multi-Payer Patient-Centered Medical Home Program
Maryland passed legislation in 2010, establishing the Maryland Multi-Payer Patient-Centered Medical Home Program. This evaluation will assess whether this patient-centered medical home program improves health care quality, health outcomes, and reduces the cost of care. This project will utilize multiple data sources such as claims, interviews, and medical records.
Philips Healthcare:
Impact of ICU Best Practices on Mortality and Length of Stay
The goal of this study is to determine the effect of compliance with defined ICU best practices, such as peri-operative beta-blocker use, prophylaxis for venous thromboembolism, stress ulcer prophylaxis, low tidal volume ventilation and blood transfusion, on ICU and hospital mortality and length of stay.
Primary Data (Collection through interviews):
Does Underrecognition of Kidney Disease Affect Patient Safety?
The study aims include: (1) establish disease-specific process measures reflecting patient safety in chronic kidney disease (CKD) and then measure them in a CKD validation cohort, which will be tracked longitudinally; (2) evaluate an intervention, an alert system comprised of a CKD med-alert bracelet with a web-based informational link describing the safe care of patients with kidney disease, designed to improve recognition of CKD in a pilot study of CKD patients, among a study cohort of persons with Stage III-V pre-dialysis CKD.
SEER Medicare:
Health Economics and Outcomes Research in Prostate Cancer
The objectives of this study are to examine the relationships among health services, treatments, and outcomes, including skeletal-related events and survival among elderly men diagnosed with prostate cancer. In particular, the study will examine treatment patterns, physician visit patterns, predictors of skeletal-related events, and timing of treatment receipt post-diagnosis. In addition, the study will elucidate the cost of bone metastasis in prostate cancer patients as well as the incremental cost of SREs among prostate cancer patients with bone metastasis.
Health Economics and Outcomes Research in Colorectal Cancer
The study will determine predictors of second and third line treatment of colon cancer and the relative survival impact of (adjuvant) chemotherapy regimens among elderly patients (age 66 years or older) with colon cancer. Finally, this study will examine the cost impact of second and third line treatment of colon cancer in this real-world patient population.
Cancer Related Bone Metastasis
The overall aim of this study is to better understand the problem of bone metastasis due to cancer, and the impact of the evolving bone-directed therapies on cancer patient outcomes in the US proposal.
Treatment Selection and CER of Liver Cancer Treatment
The objectives of the study are to conduct comparative effectiveness and simulation analysis of outcomes and treatment using SEER-Medicare data on patients with liver cancer. In particular, the aims will address treatment patterns, disparities, costs, and survival benefits of labeled therapies used according to their labeled indication as well as alternative treatments and treatment regimens, including radiation and surgery.
Veteran's Health Administration:
Do patient safety events account for adverse outcomes in CKD?
The study aims include: (1) to determine the frequency of medication errors and metabolic disturbances as candidate chronic kidney disease-related patient safety incidents (CKD-PSI) in a CKD cohort and examine whether the incidence of these CKD-PSIs increase the risk of adverse outcomes; (2) to examine the incidence of ICD-9 code-derived, general and candidate CKD-PSI in members of the CKD cohort who have been hospitalized, and determine whether the incidence of these events increase the risk of adverse outcomes.