The existing SUPIC Database includes longitudinal data from the Military Health System, inclusive of direct care provided at military facilities and care billed to the DoD by civilian providers (e.g., inpatient, outpatient and pharmacy care). The SUPIC database includes the DoD’s post-deployment health assessment and re-assessment surveys which capture self-report of combat exposures and validated mental health screens. Additional DoD data sources in the SUPIC database include deployments, vital records (e.g., pain scale), separation and demobilization data, and demographic and enrollment records.
The SUPIC postdeployment study population includes Army Active Duty, National Guard, and Reserve soldiers returning from an Afghanistan/Iraq deployment ending in fiscal years 2008-2014 (N=865,640). The SUPIC sample is approximately 89% male, two-thirds Active Duty, 24% National Guard, and 9% Reserve.
To build this longitudinal database we teamed with Military Health System data experts from Kennell and Associates, Inc. and Axiom Research Management Inc., gained sponsorship from the Defense Health Agency (DHA) (current DoD sponsor is Dr. Chester Buckenmaier III, MD), obtained IRB approvals, and secured Data Sharing Agreements to receive and analyze hundreds of files all containing only a scrambled electronic data interchange personal number as the encrypted study ID. With approval from DHA, we partner with Veterans Health Administration (VHA) researchers at Palo Alto, CA and Aurora, CO to conduct longitudinal analyses to follow SUPIC cohort members prospectively in the MHS and into the VHA, if they leave the military and use care in the VHA. For the first time for our ongoing NIMH grant, we merged National Death Index data into the SUPIC database to examine suicide and mortality outcomes for the cohort, regardless of if they use the VHA.
The result of this multi-year effort is an invaluable database that can support additional analyses on this large population cohort. While all SUPIC members have been deployed, SUPIC data captures their military health care utilization during periods when not deployed. Future projects are much more efficient because of SUPIC’s data infrastructure and library of analytic algorithms for classifying procedures (e.g., mental health, substance use, complementary and integrative pain management), prescriptions (e.g., stimulants, antidepressants, anxiolytics, opioids and subclasses of opioids), and identifying status changes of the military member (e.g., death, separation, demobilization). Longitudinal analyses have required applying knowledge about transitions in service member military status and entitlement for continued health benefits through transitions.
SUPIC studies have been funded by the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (2R01AT008404), the National Institute on Drug Abuse, the National Institute on Mental Health and Office of the Director at NIH, and Uniformed Services University Health Services Research Program (see SUPIC studies page for more details on funding). The opinions and assertions herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official views of the DoD, Uniformed Services University, the Veterans Health Administration, or the National Institutes of Health. Major Ryan C. Costantino, PharmD and HSR PhD, Enterprise Intelligence & Data Solutions (EIDS) Program Management Office (PMO), Defense Health Management Systems (DHMS) Program Executive Office (PEO), of the Uniformed Services University is the Department of Defense data sponsor.