Available Data

Available Data

HRDP-SK facilitates access to data from our data trustees. Currently there are five datasets in the HRDP-SK data repository:

  • Prescriptions dispensed are recorded in the PDP database. The records specify the patient receiving the medication, as well as details about the drug dispensed (e.g., quantity, strength, prescriber, etc.)

  • Most physicians in Canada are paid on a fee-for-service (FFS) basis. In the FFS system, physicians report (i.e., bill for) the services they provide to patients and are paid for those services by the provincial government based on an established fee schedule. In Saskatchewan, the Medical Services Plan (MSP) provides coverage to Saskatchewan residents for a variety of medical, optometric and dental services.

  • The Discharge Abstract Database holds information related to a patient’s hospital stay. Every patient admitted to a hospital as an inpatient or a day-surgery patient has a record for that admission in the DAD.

  • The National Ambulatory Care Reporting System contains information about patients’ ambulatory care visits. It is managed by the Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI) and used across Canada. In Saskatchewan, it is only used to collect information about Emergency Department (ED) visits, however it is not used by all EDs in the province. For the EDs that do use it, there is a record for every emergency department visit.

  • The Person Health Registration System is essentially the ‘health card database’. It is used to store information about Saskatchewan residents and their public health coverage.

Researchers may also place a request to use code or files (such as the Postal Code Conversion File plus (PCCF+)) in the secure research environment after demonstrating appropriate authorization or licensure.

HRDP-SK is working on integrating the following data as soon as possible:

  • Mental Health and Addiction Information System (MHAIS)

  • Saskatchewan Cancer Registry

Project-specific data integration

Our project-specific data integration process allows researchers to include in their research,data that is not in HRDP-SK’s central repository. This project-specific data can be linked to HRDP-SK data for one-time research.

Examples of project-specific data are:

  • Patient-level survey or supplemental data

  • Patient-level cohort

  • Supplemental data (e.g., socio-economic, geographical, StatsCan)

  • First Nation/Indigenous data

  • Other organizations/departments (e.g., SCA, SGI, WCB)

If this type of data will be required for your research, you must complete the Project-Specific Data Integration Request (DIR) form and provide documentation of Ethics approval related to the dataset. In addition, you must provide at least one of Copy of Consent, Documentation of Legislative Authority, or Agreement with Data Trustee depending on the source of the data; you can read more on how to meet this requirement here.

If you are unsure whether the data of interest falls under the project-specific data rules, consult with HRDP-SK.