Abstract
Over the last several years, a number of health insurance claims have been electronically submitted and entered into the national database(NDB) by the Ministry of Health, Labor & Welfare(MHLW). A trial was initiated where the NDB would be evaluated for its utility in quality improvement of healthcare services. I had the opportunity to perform the drug utilization study using the NDB, and in this article, I review the procedures by which MHLW make the NDB available and report on issues in analyzing the NDB and in using the NDB for pharmacoepidemiological studies. The NDB is much larger and more encompassing than other medical databases and its findings are expected to havea great influence on a pharmacoepidemiological studies in Japan in providing valuable information on the rational use of drugs. (Jpn J Pharmacoepidemiol 2012; 17(2): 155-162)
