Abstract: PUB109
Use of the United States Renal Data System in Nontransplant Nephrology Research
Session Information
Category: Dialysis
- 801 Dialysis: Hemodialysis and Frequent Dialysis
Authors
- Sreenivasan, Anagha, University of Texas Austin, Austin, Texas, United States
- Golestaneh, Ladan, Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut, United States
- Hemmige, Vagish, Montefiore Einstein Medical Center, New York, New York, United States
Background
The United States Renal Data System links data from Center for Medicare and Medicaid Service’s End-Stage Renal Disease program with Medicare insurance diagnosis codes, procedure codes, and medication reimbursement codes, and is freely available to researchers in the United States. The way these data are used by researchers, however, still needs to be explored.
Methods
We performed a PubMed search in June 2022 for the terms “United States Renal Data System” and “USRDS”. After selecting 100 published papers dating back to 2020, two members of the research team performed a structured analysis of each paper. Transplant-related papers and papers not conducting original patient-data research were excluded. Routine statistics were calculated in R.
Results
After excluding 13 papers without patient-level analyses and 28 transplant-related papers, a total of 59 papers met criteriaIn our data set, 32 studies (54%) used Institutional and 28 (47%) used Physician/Supplier files to identify ICD/CPT codes. 20 (34%) of studies used Part D files to determine medications. In addition, only 6 studies used crosswalk data (10%). Only 1 study (1.7%) used cost data.
Conclusion
The USRDS, in terms of improving dialysis outcomes, is underutilized, especially when it comes to cost data. More studies should be done to determine barriers to improved utilization of this resource.
| Characteristic | N=59 | |
| Study was funded | Yes | 47 (80%) |
| No | 12 (20%) | |
| Language(s)* used | R | 13 (25%) |
| SAS | 36 (71%) | |
| Stata | 14 (27%) | |
| SPSS | 2 (3.9%) | |
| Unknown | 8 (14%) | |
| Code was shared | Yes | 3 (5.1%) |
| No | 56 (94.9%) | |
| File(s) used* | Core | 59 (100%) |
| Institution | 32 (54%) | |
| Physician | 28 (47%) | |
| Hospital discharge | 31 (53%) | |
| Transplant (UNOS) | 1 (1.7%) | |
| Part D | 20 (34%) | |
| Data extracted* | Basic demographics | 59 (100%) |
| ICD-9 codes | 36 (61%) | |
| ICD-10 codes | 19 (32%) | |
| CPT codes | 23 (39%) | |
| Medication | 20 (34%) | |
| Transplant-related data | 8 (14%) | |
| Costs | 1 (1.7%) | |
| Residential | 16 (27%) | |
| Crosswalks used | Physician | 3 (5.1%) |
| Provider | 1 (1.7%) | |
| Provider | 2 (3.4%) | |
*Percentages can add to over 100%