National health data warehouse: issues to consider.

A national data warehouse that links public and private data could be used to monitor trends in healthcare costs, utilization, quality of care, and adherence to quality guidelines and changes in treatment protocols. The development of the data warehouse, however, would require overcoming a number of political and technical challenges to gain access to private insurance data. This article outlines recommendations from a national conference sponsored by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) on the private sector's role in quality monitoring and provides an operational outline for the development of a national private sector health data warehouse.