Data dictionary for the SEER portion of SEER-Medicare can be found here. The Medicare claims data dictionaries can be found here.
Type of Data
Administrative billing database linked with Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results (SEER)
Years Available
1999-2019**
Note: The available timeframe depends on cancer site. Please see SEER-Medicare data availability here.
Short Description
SEER-Medicare links two large databases to provide detailed clinical information for a subset of Medicare beneficiaries. In other words, the data available in SEER-Medicare goes well beyond that of the CMS SAFs, offering data on clinical staging, tumor characteristics, and treatment.
Strengths
- Many years of data available means that ‘trend’ studies are possible
- Clinical data adds much needed dimensionality to Medicare claims data. Similarly, the claims data offer a far more complete picture of the “healthcare footprint” for an individual patient
- Geographic information includes beneficiary state and county which can be linked with external data sources
Limitations
- Not all states participate in SEER so study sample is not fully representative of the United States
- Complexity of the data tied with challenges in deciphering site-specific values of variables can make analyzing this data cumbersome