The Dartmouth Atlas of Musculoskeletal Health Care

<h2>Overview</h2>
<p>The Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice (TDI) has created a publicly available source of data that provides researchers, payers, regulators, and innovators with metrics that quantify temporal and regional patterns of health care spending and utilization in the United States. Using CMS Medicare claims data (mostly for age >64 enrollees), Atlas researchers built cohorts (“denominators”) and numerous measures or events (“numerators”) which were then used to calculate rates either by geography or for patients assigned to specific hospitals. These rates, which are calculated consistently across time and place, provide researchers with opportunities to evaluate spatial and temporal variation/trends. </p>

<p>This entry contains Dartmouth Atlas rates for a variety of measures related to musculoskeletal care for fee-for-service (FFS) Medicare beneficiaries, age 65 to 99. Measures include physician supply by specialty, rates for surgical and diagnostic procedures related to the evaluation and treatment of spine problems, rates for surgical treatments for degenerative joint disease, and rates for treatment of fractures. The time period assessed varies across measures, but in general focuses on 1996 and 1997. Rates are provided at the hospital referral region (HRR) level and have been adjusted for age/sex or age/sex/race as appropriate (see report for details).</p>

<p> Users downloading data should review the methods sections of the related publication for context. All reports in the Dartmouth Atlas of Health Care series are available from the National Library of Medicine <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK584737/"> https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK584737/ </a>
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