Exploring physician assistant data sources.

Area of Science:

• Healthcare Workforce Research
• Health Services Research
• Data Quality Assessment

Background:

• Physician Assistant (PA) datasets are crucial for understanding healthcare policy and workforce dynamics.
• Assessing the quality and utility of existing PA proprietary datasets is essential for researchers.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the data quality of four key physician assistant (PA) proprietary datasets.
• To provide researchers with insights into the strengths and limitations of these datasets for healthcare policy and workforce analysis.

Main Methods:

• Experienced researchers conducted a descriptive analysis of each dataset.
• Assessment included an overview, data collection methodology, available variables, and data limitations.
• Strengths and weaknesses of each dataset were identified.

Main Results:

• The datasets from AAPA, NCCPA, PAEA, and Optum Provider360 share overlapping variables.
• Limitations include a lack of public-use files and the inability to easily link datasets due to missing unique identifiers.
• Data validation variables were present, but access often required specific requests or purchase.

Conclusions:

• The assessed PA datasets offer valuable variables but have scope limitations.
• Improved data collection, shared platforms, and enhanced data linkage are needed.
• Researchers require more comprehensive, longitudinal, and publicly accessible datasets for robust analysis.