On August 9 – 10, 2012 the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) held its first ever Behavioral Health Data Users Conference and it was awesome! Over two days, SAMHSA brought data owners and users together in one place to better explore the treasure trove of behavioral health data being produced by SAMHSA.
Unlike other conferences, the SAMHSA Behavioral Health Data Users Conference not only convened people to provide an overview of what type of data is available, but actually trained attendees on how to access data, create tables and run regressions!
The two-day conference featured an agenda jam packed with something for everyone. The morning started out with U.S. Chief Technology Officer, Todd Park discussing the power of data and how it can be harnessed to address some of the United States most critical needs, specifically noting that by 2020 behavioral health conditions will surpass all physical diseases as a major cause of disability worldwide.
From there, attendees were given the option to attend a number of exciting breakout sessions. Sessions included data training on the National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH), the Behavioral Health Services Information System, the Drug Abuse Warning Network and a number of other rich data sources.
If sitting in front of a computer wasn’t your cup of tea, attendees had the option of attending more of a traditional session. The session that I attended focused on the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Data Archive (SAMHDA), data confidentially and restricted use data access. While to some people, this may not sound like the most exciting session, but those people truly missed out! From this session, attendees not only were presented with the reasons of why SAMHSA collects the data it does, but also why the balance between open access to data and privacy is so important.
Neil Russell, SAMHSA’s Health Data Initiative lead, made two exciting announcements on how SAMHSA is working to increase access to restricted data through two new projects, the Restricted-use Data Analysis System (R-DAS) and the Data Portal. R-DAS will allow users to create tables (not regressions) from SAMHDA. To ensure privacy standards, disclosure limitation measures will be embedded in R-DAS which will ensure that output will not disclose confidential data. R-DAS is currently being beta tested and is expected to be launched this fall.
In addition to R-DAS expanding accessibility to restricted use data, is the new Data Portal that is currently under development. The Data Portal will provide researchers off-site access to individual level record, including state and sub-state variables. For access to restricted-use data through the Data Portal, researchers will be required to submit a research proposal (for review & approval), sign a contract (data use agreement), and have non-disclosure affidavits signed and notarized. The Data Portal is expected to be ready in January 2013.
SAMHSA is making great strides in expanding data accessibility and liquidity that will help ensure that behavioral health is in on the forefront of people’s minds when addressing health issues. The 2012 Behavioral Health Data Users Conference was a fantastic mix of information, interaction and data, data, data!
Photo credit: Tarah Griep
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