A Standard Framework for Evaluating Large Health Care Data and Related Resources.

Since 2000, the availability and use of large health care data and related resources for conducting surveillance, research, and evaluations to guide clinical and public health decision-making has increased rapidly. These trends have been related to transformations in health care information technology and public as well as private-sector efforts for collecting, compiling, and supplying large volumes of data. This growing collection of robust and often timely data has enhanced the capability to increase the knowledge base guiding clinical and public health activities and also has increased the need for effective tools to assess the attributes of these resources and identify the types of scientific questions they are best suited to address. This:MMWR supplement presents a standard framework for evaluating large health care data and related resources, including constructs, criteria, and tools that investigators and evaluators can apply and adapt.