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Data

Databases

Population-level health databases used in AsPEN multi-national studies. The map is focused on East Asia; pan or zoom out to view partner sites.

East Asia network

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Taiwan

National Health Insurance Research Database (NHIRD) Claims

Coverage: ~23M individuals · >99% of Taiwan population · data since 2000

Universal single-payer claims; 70+ billion records and 3.4 billion medical images as of 2024, now including structured laboratory and imaging data.

Explore Taiwan's data infrastructure
Chang Gung Research Database (CGRD) Multi-institutional EHR

Coverage: ~1.5M individuals · ~6–10% of Taiwan population · data since 2011

Standardized electronic medical records from seven Chang Gung Memorial Hospitals; research data available since 2011 with ~1-month latency.

Taiwan Biobank (TWB) Biobank

Coverage: ~200K community participants · target 1M · since 2012

Population-based biomedical biobank linking genomic, lifestyle, and clinical data.

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Japan

National Database of Health Insurance Claims and Specific Health Checkups (NDB)

Claims

Coverage: ~120M individuals · effectively all of Japan · since 2008

Operated by the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare; nationwide insurance claims and specific health checkup records used for medical-cost optimization research.

JMDC Claims Database

Claims

Coverage: ~13.5M members · ~9.4% of Japan, working-age skew · since 2005

Operated by JMDC Inc.; receipts, health-checkup results, and enrolment records pooled from ~179 health insurance societies. Excellent longitudinal traceability (up to 17 years).

DeSC Database

Claims

Coverage: ~9.3M members · ~8% of Japan (employer / national / late-stage elderly insurers) · since 2014

Operated by DeSC Healthcare, Inc.; first commercial Japanese DB to span Employee Health Insurance, National Health Insurance, and Late-Stage Elderly Healthcare in a single dataset.

Medical Data Vision (MDV) Database

Hospital-based EHR + DPC claims

Coverage: ~48M patients · ~29% of Japan's acute-hospital admissions (519 DPC hospitals) · since 2008

Operated by Medical Data Vision Co., Ltd.; inpatient and outpatient DPC claims plus laboratory results — strong for in-hospital exposure, severity, and outcomes research.

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South Korea

Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service (HIRA)

Claims

Coverage: ~50M individuals · nationwide Korea (universal NHI) · since 2009

Independent agency that reviews claims for reimbursement appropriateness; provides researchers a separate access pathway to Korean NHI claims since 2009 (open data initiative 2013).

National Health Insurance Service – National Health Information Database (NHIS-NHID)

Claims

Coverage: ~50M individuals · nationwide Korea (compulsory NHI) · since 2002

Population-level claims with periodic national health screening linkage; complementary to HIRA, with stronger linkage to enrolment and health-check data.

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Hong Kong

Clinical Data Analysis and Reporting System (CDARS)

National EHR

Coverage: ~7M individuals · Hong Kong Hospital Authority (territory-wide) · since 1995

Public-sector electronic medical records covering the great majority of Hong Kong residents.

International partner sites

AsPEN collaborators draw on data partners outside East Asia for benchmarking and methodological comparison — including UK, US, European, and Australian sites linked through the NeuroGEN data initiative.

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United Kingdom

Clinical Practice Research Datalink (CPRD)

Primary-care EHR

Coverage: ~60M patients · ~20% currently active in UK · since 1987

MHRA-administered UK primary-care EHR with linkage to Hospital Episode Statistics, ONS mortality, and other national datasets.

The Health Improvement Network (THIN)

Primary-care EHR

Coverage: ~17M patients · ~6% of UK · since 1986

UK primary-care EHR drawn from contributing general practices; complementary to CPRD, mapped to international coding systems. Listed as a NeuroGEN partner database.

UK Biobank (UKB)

Biobank

Coverage: ~500K community participants · aged 40–69 at recruitment · since 2005

Population-based biomedical biobank linking genomic, lifestyle, imaging, and electronic medical record data. NeuroGEN partner biomedical database.

Public Health Scotland (ISD)

National EHR

Coverage: ~5.4M individuals · entire Scottish population · since 1950

National prescribing, hospital admissions, and death-records system covering all NHS Scotland — a NeuroGEN partner data source.

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Netherlands

PHARMO Database Network

Multi-source EHR

Coverage: ~7M patients · ~40% of Netherlands · since 1999

Linked pharmacy, primary care, and hospital records across multiple regions of the Netherlands; NeuroGEN partner data source.

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Finland

Finnish healthcare registers (FinReg)

Claims + registries

Coverage: ~5.5M individuals · entire Finnish population · since 1972

Nationwide population registries linking prescriptions, hospital discharges, special-reimbursement, and cause-of-death data — used in NeuroGEN.

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Australia

Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme — 10% sample (PBS)

Claims

Coverage: ~2.5M beneficiaries · 10% random sample of Australia's PBS · since 2005

Federal subsidised prescription medicine claims for Australia's national PBS — a NeuroGEN partner data source.

Victorian Linked Health Data (VLHD)

Claims + EHR linkages

Coverage: ~6.5M individuals · entire Victorian population · since 2006

State-level Victorian admissions, deaths, and dispensing data linked into a single research dataset.

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United States

Medicare (20% sample)

Claims

Coverage: ~13M beneficiaries · 20% random sample of ~65M Medicare (aged 65+) · since 2007

US federal insurance for those aged 65+ and selected disability groups; widely used in NeuroGEN multi-database studies.

Medicaid

Claims

Coverage: ~70M beneficiaries · US public insurance (low-income / disability) · since 2001

Federal–state public insurance programme used as a partner data source in NeuroGEN multi-database collaborations.

Compare databases

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Other sites

Additional data sources documented that are not part of the current active network include Singapore's National Electronic Health Record (NEHR), and two Thai sites — Buddhachinaraj Hospital Database (BHD) (a tertiary referral hospital EHR) and the Hospital Information network across 21 community hospitals in Ubon Ratchathani.

Database descriptions adapted from the AsPEN paper (Lai ECC et al. Epidemiology. 2015 Nov;26(6):815-20. DOI: 10.1097/EDE.0000000000000325) and the NeuroGEN data-infrastructure paper (Tsai DHT et al., Clinical Epidemiology 2023; DOI: 10.2147/CLEP.S426485). Access policies and coverage may have changed since publication. Please verify with each data custodian before study planning.