Analyzing VA Data - Promises and Challenges
*Siu Lui Hui, Indiana University 

Keywords: databases, VA

The clinical and administrative databases of the national VA system provide an attractive source of clinical and health care data for a nation-wide subpopulation. This system offers a unique opportunity to conduct observational studies with unparalleled breadth and depth of individual patients' information. It also enables the conduct of experiments to test the effectiveness of facility-based interventions across the nation. However, there are many pitfalls that one has to be aware of in order to avoid hidden biases in the results of the study.