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Erschienen in:
04.09.2018 | Review Article
Health services research in German radiation oncology: new opportunities to advance cancer care
Erschienen in: Strahlentherapie und Onkologie | Ausgabe 12/2018
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Background
Health services research (HSR) is of increasing relevance to scientists, health-care providers, and clinicians. Complex population-based secondary data are a key source of information for analyses of health-care effects in radiation oncology.
Methods
In this short paper, we examine potential applications of secondary data focusing on statistics from the diagnosis-related groups (DRG). This data set incorporating all hospitalized cases in Germany is based on claims of reimbursements and is provided by the Research Data Centers (RDC) of the Federal Statistical Office and the Statistical Offices of the federal states. A short outlook regarding other data sources is also presented.
Results
In radiation oncology, secondary data such as the DRG statistics have rarely been used to examine health-care effects, despite their great potential for reporting effects in a broad population-based setting. Furthermore, for most data sources, the application to use these data is accessible with minor effort. However, data concerning outpatient care are difficult to analyze on a comparable level.
Conclusion
DRG statistics and related secondary data provide a remarkable source of information for analyses of health-care-related effects in radiation oncology.