Information Sources and Data Management

Abstract

Today, a wide variety of organizations both inside and outside of health care require health-related data for an expanding number of uses. Data on the external environment have become increasingly important for strategic, business, and marketing planning purposes. This chapter outlines the available categories of health-related data, describes the ways in which they are generated, and indicates sites where they might be accessed. The growing interest in the social determinants of health has broadened the range of data of interest to health planners. Health data can be viewed along a number of dimensions: community vs. organizational; internal vs. external; and primary vs. secondary. Relevant data also can be accessed for various geographic levels and considered from different temporal dimensions. The key means of data generation are censuses, surveys, and registration systems. Since health-related data are often not readily available, synthetic data are often generated. Primary sources of data include governments at all levels (including public health authorities), private organizations, research organizations, and commercial data vendors.