Main Sources
Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality: National Healthcare Quality Report
The 2005 National Healthcare Quality Report (NHQR) is a comprehensive national overview of quality of health care in the United States. The 2005 NHQR includes 179 performance measures that can be used to monitor the Nation's progress toward improved health care quality for all Americans. The report presents, in chart format, the latest available findings on the quality of health care in the general U.S. population, focusing on four components of quality: effectiveness, patient safety, timeliness, and patient centeredness.
Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System
The Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) is the world’s largest, on-going telephone health survey system, tracking health conditions and risk behaviors in the United States yearly since 1984. Conducted by the 50 state health departments as well as those in the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, Guam, and the U.S. Virgin Islands with support from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), BRFSS provides state-specific information about issues such as asthma, diabetes, health care access, alcohol use, hypertension, obesity, cancer screening, nutrition and physical activity, tobacco use, and more.
Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services
Formerly known as the Health Care Financing Administration (HCFA), CMS are the federal agency responsible for administering the Medicare, Medicaid, SCHIP (State Children's Health Insurance Program), HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act), CLIA (Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments), and several other health-related programs. Different statistics on Medicare and Medicaid are available on the CMS website, such as Medicare enrollment reports and Medicare Fee-For-Service statistics.
Kaiser Family Foundation: Statehealthfacts.org
Statehealthfacts.org is a project of the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation and is designed to provide free, up-to-date, and easy-to-use health data on all 50 states. Statehealthfacts.org provides data on more than 500 health topics. Data presented on statehealthfacts.org are collected from a variety of public and private sources.
National Survey of Children's Health
The Data Resource Center for the National Survey of Children's Health provides online access to survey data that allows users to compare state, regional, and nationwide results – plus resources and personalized assistance for interpreting and reporting findings.
National Survey on Drug Use & Health, SAMHSA
The National Survey on Drug Use & Health provides the latest data on prevalence and correlates of substance use, serious mental illness, related problems, and treatment in the civilian population aged 12 or older in the U.S.
New York City Interactive Health Data: EpiQuery
EpiQuery is a web-based, user-friendly system designed to guide users through basic data analyses on several datasets, including data from the Community Health Survey, the Youth Risk Behavior Survey, and SPARCS Hospital data. Users can run cross-tabulations and find point estimates with confidence intervals.
New York State Department of Health: Expanded BRFSS
The Expanded BRFSS project was conducted from July 2002 through July 2003 in 38 localities (individual counties and county groupings) comprising the entire state. Administration of the random digit dialed telephone survey closely adhered to the annual BRFSS survey protocol procedures developed by CDC. The Expanded BRFSS questionnaire was constructed of standard BRFSS items and modules developed by the CDC as well.
New York State Department of Health: Vital Statistics
Vital Statistics of New York State include yearly county data on population, live births, fetal deaths, induced abortions, pregnancies, and mortality, amongst others.
State Cancer Profiles
The State Cancer Profiles Web site is a project led by the National Cancer Institute and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The objective of the State Cancer Profiles Web site is to provide a system to characterize the cancer burden in a standardized manner in order to motivate action, integrate surveillance into cancer control planning, characterize areas and demographic groups, and expose health disparities. The target audiences are health planners, policy makers, and cancer information providers who need quick and easy access to descriptive cancer statistics in order to prioritize investments in cancer control. The Profiles Web site brings together data that are collected from public health surveillance systems by using either their published reports or public use files.
The Dartmouth Atlas of Health Care
The Dartmouth Atlas Project works to accurately describe how medical resources are distributed and used in the United States. The project offers comprehensive information and analysis about national, regional, and local markets, as well as individual hospitals and their affiliated physicians, in order to provide a basis for improving health and health systems. The project is run by Center for the Evaluative Clinical Sciences at Dartmouth Medical School.
U.S. Census Bureau: Current Population Survey
The Current Population Survey (CPS) is a monthly survey of about 50,000 households conducted by the Bureau of the Census for the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The survey has been conducted for more than 50 years. Estimates obtained from the CPS include health insurance coverage by a variety of demographic characteristics including age, sex, race, and educational attainment.
U.S. Department of Health and Home Services: Office of Applied Studies
Provides the latest national data on alcohol, tobacco, marijuana and other drug abuse, drug related emergency department episodes and medical examiner cases, and the nation's substance abuse treatment system.
Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance
The Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System (YRBSS) monitors six categories of priority health-risk behaviors among youth and young adults, including behaviors that contribute to unintentional injuries and violence; tobacco use; alcohol and other drug use; sexual behaviors that contribute to unintended pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases, including human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infections; unhealthy dietary behaviors; and physical inactivity. In addition, the YRBSS monitors general health status and the prevalence of overweight and asthma. YRBSS includes a national school-based survey conducted by CDC and state and local school-based surveys conducted by state and local education and health agencies.