Your research questions should align directly with the data elements requested and must be clearly justified and approved by SPARCS and the Data Governance Committee. For example, if your approved project is analyzing emergency department visits for opioid-related overdoses using admission type, diagnosis codes, and patient ZIP code, it would not be appropriate to later use the same dataset to study geographic variation in mental health-related visits unless it was explicitly approved by SPARCS and the DGC.
SPARCS hospital discharge data can be used for healthcare-related research, rate determinations, and other approved purposes. Data use must adhere to the minimum necessary use standard, ensuring that only the data necessary for the approved project is used. Identifiable data elements are only approved if essential for the project and if patient privacy can be protected. SPARCS data cannot be used for marketing, commercial use, legal claims, or to identify clinical trial patients.