Core Director: Thomas McGuire
The Data & Methods Core provides the personnel, expertise, and computational resources needed for effective use of Medicare data and other data to be acquired and analyzed by the investigators in the Program Project. Additionally, it provides leadership on the data-related issues common to all projects as well as day-to-day direction in the management of complex data sets and analyses. This Core involves four aims.
First, the Core is responsible for all data management and oversight activities including dataset acquisition, preparation, integration, management, and quality control. Vanessa Azzone is the Dataset Co-Director.
Second, the Core offers and coordinates clinical expertise in measurement, specification of key analytic variables, and interpretation across the projects. Almost all aims in the Program Project projects involve some clinical or health data. The explicit clinical linkage will help ensure cross-project learning about fruitful approaches and maximize consistency in approaches across projects. Bruce Landon is the Clinical Co-Director.
Third, the Core offers and coordinates expertise on statistical model building and other data analysis methods across all projects. A coordinated approach is particularly important given the common features across projects in the data used and interrelated research questions. Alan Zaslavsky is the Statistical Co-Director.
Fourth, the Core applies theory from health economics to supply- and demand-side setting payment innovations. Thomas McGuire is also the Theory Co-Director.
The Data & Methods Core is staffed by senior researchers with extensive experience with the data and methods involved in the Program Project projects.