Clinical Epidemiology and Health Services Research using the Diagnosis Procedure Combination Database in Japan

Hideo Yasunaga; Hiroki Matsui; Hiromasa Horiguchi; Kiyohide Fushimi; Shinya Matsuda

doi:10.7223/apjdm.7.19

Review

Clinical Epidemiology and Health Services Research using the Diagnosis Procedure Combination Database in Japan

Hideo Yasunaga, Hiroki Matsui, Hiromasa Horiguchi, Kiyohide Fushimi, Shinya Matsuda

Author information

Keywords: Diagnosis Procedure Combination, Clinical Epidemiology, Health Services Research, Nationwide Inpatient Sample

JOURNAL FREE ACCESS

2015 Volume 7 Issue 1-2 Pages 19-24

DOI https://doi.org/10.7223/apjdm.7.19

Details

Abstract

Japan established an original case-mix classification system in 2002, so called Diagnosis Procedure Combination (DPC). The main purposes of introducing the DPC system are providing transparency of hospital performance as well as implementing an electronic billing system. Researchers can utilize the DPC data to identify, track, and analyze national trends in health care utilization, access, quality, outcomes, and costs. The unique advantage of the DPC data is the inclusion of detailed process data and several clinical data, which can be applied to academic studies on clinical epidemiology and health services research. The present report reviews the details of the DPC data in term of the structure of the DPC, the scale and contents of the DPC database, and the usability of the DPC data for clinical epidemiology and health services research as compared with the US Nationwide Inpatient Sample database.

Corresponding author

Register with J-STAGE for free!