Clinical and epidemiologic information derived from large databases, and accurate, efficient management of data from multiple research in geriatrics. This core facility will provide expertise and assistance in several disciplines to provide a solid epidemiologic and quantitative dimension to the Geriatric Research and Training Center. The core will consist of the following components: (a) the maintenance and refinement of a large claims- based database describing all clinical encounters for a population of over one million residents of New Jersey enrolled in the Medicaid, Medicare, and Pharmacy Assistance for the Aged programs, which has already been developed and utilized by members of the research team; (b) integration into the Center of other population- based datasets, drawing on data already collected by investigators at Harvard (e.g., Established Populations for Epidemiologic Studies of the Elderly project, Veterans Administration Normative Aging Study and other Boston-based datasets) as well as national datasets of relevance to geriatric research; their use will be enhanced considerably by providing a means to facilitate access to them and provide guidance in their analysis by gerontologists whose primary training lies in areas other than epidemiology; (c) biostatistical consultation: In addition to the population-based studies noted above, there is also a great need for strong biostatistical expertise in the design, conduct, and analysis of clinical research studies as well as laboratory-based projects. The core will provide biostatistical consultation for Center-related gerontologic research as a main component of its mission; (d) information processing: The core will also serve to actively integrate the multiple sources of data that will exist within the Center, so as to maximize their synergy. Thus, this core will develop and host the database comprising information collected by the Screening and Evaluation Core, so as to maximize its availability to other Center components, and will actively network the disparate computer systems and information resources in various components of the Center; (e) core faculty will also bring to the Center considerable experience in public health and health services research aspects of geriatric medicine, and will help Center trainees and faculty to define and analyze the health services research and policy analysis components of projects where these are relevant.
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