I’ve just returned from the AAPOR Annual Conference where I was reminded by one of the HSRM Conference organizers that I never finished my HSRM posts. Shame on me. So picking up where I left off, the afternoon session consisted of six papers on the general topic, “Building the Health Data Sets of Tomorrow.”
The title itself is interesting because it talks about “datasets” rather than surveys. It raises the possibility that major health datasets that today are built primarily through surveys might in the future be constructed from a combination of surveys and behavioral data, or, in government speak, “administrative records.” This is hardly a new concept. I can recall experiments back in the 70’s and 80’s that looked at the feasibility of matching data from different federal record systems and, on some large government contracts, the feasibility of substituting administrative record data for survey data collection or at least development of sampling frames. These experiments generally faltered on the inherent difficulty of matching, especially with no single identifier (such as a social security number) across systems and the generally poor character of administrative record keeping at the time.
Whether this renewed interest in the use of these behavioral data sources is a sign that these problems are being solved or simply a case of “hope springs eternal” I can’t say. This session, while offering up some intriguing possibilities, experiments, and lines of inquiry, didn’t really answer the question. These folks live in a world where precise measurement is not just a good idea, it’s the law. Their eyes light up about the possibilities, but they are especially good at seeing the gaps and the flaws.
Lots of people in MR talk about the possibilities of “behavioral data” as a potential revolution in how market research is done, but the potential impact on government health research is even more far reaching. Most of what we do in MR is make inferences about future behavior based on measuring attitudes and intentions in surveys, focus groups, and, more recently, social media. Government health surveys, on the other hand, are almost completely about measuring and documenting current and past behavior. In some instances the only way in which respondents can accurately answer the survey’s questions is by consulting their own records. So the potential advantage of effectively leveraging the vast amounts of data now being collected about individual health-related behaviors and use of the healthcare system is huge. Unfortunately, I did not come away convinced that we will get there any time soon. But at least they are working on it.