Deriving Evidence from Secondary Data in Hand Surgery: Strengths, Limitations, and Future Directions.

Health services research using secondary data is a powerful tool for guiding quality/performance measure development, payment reform, and health policy. Patient preferences, physical examination findings, use of postoperative care, and other factors specific to hand surgery research are critical pieces of information required to study quality of care and improve patient outcomes. These data often are missing from data sets, causing limitations and challenges when performing secondary data analyses in hand surgery. As the role of secondary data in surgical research expands, hand surgeons must apply novel strategies and become involved in collaborative initiatives to overcome the limitations of existing resources.