A third data check evaluates the transfer data sets contain dates that may reflect birth, death or healthcare utilization dates.
In addition, the most recent edition of NSS with information on morbidity and healthcare utilization dates to 2004 [ 20] with an earlier survey in 1995/96 [ 21].
The extracted data, which were obtained from the Michigan Department of Community Health, included an encrypted Medicaid identifier, age, sex, race/ethnicity, utilization dates and diagnostic codes for inpatient admissions and emergency department visits, and geo-coded home residence at the time of each health care visit.
Matching was performed based on the following parameters: sex (exact match), utilization date (within ±6 months of the index date for the case), type utilization (outpatient or ED visit), age at utilization (±2 years as of the index date for the case).
These health plans have used electronic medical records systems since at least 2005 and have electronic healthcare utilization data dating back to 1995 or earlier.
Data from the GHP healthcare claims database include inpatient and outpatient diagnoses and procedures, outpatient drug utilization, and dates of service.
The cellulosome of Clostridium thermocellum is known to have one of the highest rates of cellulose utilization till date reported, displaying a 50-fold higher specific activity than the T. reesei system against crystalline cellulose [ 5].
Furthermore, syntheses of findings of studies on the individual determinants of research utilization to date are equivocal, and the majority of those currently studied (e.g., age, years of clinical experience) are questionably modifiable [ 23].
In order to generate the trend in medicine utilization, DrugA supply dates were randomly generated using the following distribution functions; uniform distribution for no trend, the log-normal distribution for a rapidly increasing trend, weibull distribution for a constant increasing trend and gamma distribution to simulate a gradual increasing trend in DrugA.
This dataset contains patient demographic information; socioeconomic status of the household; detailed information about the pregnancy and delivery including prenatal care utilization, hospital stays, date and place of birth, type of delivery and procedures performed; and full information about maternal, fetal, and neonatal health.
Therefore, the initial action required explicitly defining the Thomas Methodology (see Additional file 1) and implementing the methodology with up-to-date population and hospital utilization data.
