Epidemiol Health.
2018;40:e2018062. 10.4178/epih.e2018062.
Data resource profile: the National Health Insurance Research Database (NHIRD)
- Affiliations
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- 1Department of Non-communicable Disease Epidemiology, Faculty of Epidemiology and Population Health, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London, UK.
- 2Institute of Occupational Medicine and Industrial Hygiene, National Taiwan University College of Public Health, Taipei, Taiwan. pchen@ntu.edu.tw
- 3Department of Public Health, National Taiwan University College of Public Health, Taipei, Taiwan.
- 4Innovation and Policy Centre for Population Health and Sustainable Environment, National Taiwan University College of Public Health, Taipei, Taiwan.
- 5Department of Environmental and Occupational Medicine, National Taiwan University College of Medicine and Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan.
- 6Office of Occupational Safety and Health, National Taiwan University Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan.
- KMID: 2438510
- DOI: http://doi.org/10.4178/epih.e2018062
Abstract
- Electronic health records (EHRs) can provide researchers with extraordinary opportunities for population-based research. The National Health Insurance system of Taiwan was established in 1995 and covers more than 99.6% of the Taiwanese population; this system's claims data are released as the National Health Insurance Research Database (NHIRD). All data from primary outpatient departments and inpatient hospital care settings after 2000 are included in this database. After a change and update in 2016, the NHIRD is maintained and regulated by the Data Science Centre of the Ministry of Health and Welfare of Taiwan. Datasets for approved research are released in three forms: sampling datasets comprising 2 million subjects, disease-specific databases, and full population datasets. These datasets are de-identified and contain basic demographic information, disease diagnoses, prescriptions, operations, and investigations. Data can be linked to government surveys or other research datasets. While only a small number of validation studies with small sample sizes have been undertaken, they have generally reported positive predictive values of over 70% for various diagnoses. Currently, patients cannot opt out of inclusion in the database, although this requirement is under review. In conclusion, the NHIRD is a large, powerful data source for biomedical research.
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