OFRA

• Key Partners​​
  
• ICS Presentation​​

1. Researcher or analyst (requestor) has a need for an integrated data set.
   
2. Requestor reaches out to data sources (programs and/or agencies) to discover where the data reside and to learn more from the data owners (experts) about the needed variables.
3. Requestor reaches out to ICS to work out details of how the requested data elements can be connected into an integrated data set.
• ​This sometimes involves a meeting between requestors, ICS, and data sources to work out logistics of creating a dataset.
• Data sources need to communicate limitations with requested data elements.

• full first name
• full last name
• full middle name (middle initial, if available, in lieu of middle name when not available)
• date of birth
• gender/sex
• Additional fields may increase the match rate, including social security number, county of residence, zip code, race/ethnicity. Consult with ICS to determine if any program-specific fields may help increase match rates or if specific fields are available. Record linkage projects will ideally include fields in addition to the minimal fields in order to improve linkage accuracy, especially when a very large number of records require linkage. 

• Names: first, last, and middle names separated into columns.
• Last names with multiple names should remain in the same column (e.g., hyphenated names, compound surnames, multiple surnames).
• Non-alphanumeric characters (e.g. accent marks, symbols) should be removed (“cleaned") from the data whenever possible.
• Dates: dates can be in any standard format, including separation of date components into different fields (i.e. day, month, year of birth in separate fields). The dates represented in any field should be consistent for the entire field (e.g. avoid mixing date formats: “12/25/2001", “2003-12-25").
• Unique persons should be de-duplicated in program records: each individual person should occupy one row within a data set, not multiple rows. If programs cannot de-duplicate records, then be sure to let ICS know that records have not been de-duplicated.

• The proportion of records with missing identifiers (e.g., % of records with missing last names).
• How data sources have bee​n validated (e.g., are any variables estimated or leveraged from an unreliable source).
• The variables available for linkage (e.g., data sources without a middle name or SSN, for instance, can lead to high rates of false matches).
• Previous match metrics or evaluation of match outcomes.
• How data owners and ICS want to handle false matches or low rates of overall matches.
• How issues with linked data (e.g., bias, incomplete matches, low match rate) be communicated to data end-users
  

​​​The Integrated Client Services unit (ICS), within the Office of Forecasting, Research, and Analysis, was established in 2005 to support data integration across OHA and ODHS programs (“the Agencies"). ICS has since grown to support integrated data efforts beyond OHA and ODHS to include external data (i.e., K-12 education (ODE), Department of Corrections (DOC), etc.). The integrated data that ICS maintains is leveraged widely for analysis and research, both within state agencies and other intuitions such as universities.

ICS widely shares state integrated data, both at the identified and deidentified level, which requires policies and processes for data governance that incorporate legal agreements for the protection of personally identifiable or sensitive data. The primary ICS governance structure was established through a memorandum of understanding (MOU​) between OHA and ODHS to set forth the respective commitments of the Agencies concerning network and information systems access, and information sharing between the Agencies. This MOU allows ICS to receive the necessary program data to both support statistical forecasting efforts and maintain an agency wide client index (“CI": a unique person-level identifier that can be applied to each client record across Agency programs, regardless of the type of unique identifier that programs use within their own data systems). Additional agreements are also maintained between entities that share data with ICS but do not fall under the OHA and ODHS MOU (i.e., Center for Health Statistics, Women Infants and Children program, Oregon Department of Education, Oregon Employment Department, etc.).

Concerning the information received and stored in ICS, a governance committee was established with members representing each of the data sources contributing data to ICS. Each member contributes to determining overall ICS data use and use of their own program data (stored in ICS).  

Additionally, when analysts or researchers request to leverage the ICS client index to create an integrated data product (i.e., a deidentified research data set), ICS will convene a data use committee comprised of representatives for the programs from which data are requested. Prior to ICS leveraging its CI to create an integrated data product, an official request must be made through the completion of the ICS Data Use Agreement (DUA) request form, which must be approved by all members of the data use committee. 

A request for a state integrated data set generally requires the requestor (analyst, university researcher, etc.) to complete data use agreements with each individual data source. ICS requests copies of all approved source data use agreements and project IRBs where applicable. ​​

​Learn more about ICS governance​​.

The tables in the ICS Data Project and Research Use-Case Inventory include research data requests, multiyear data projects or multiyear research data requests, and “ad hoc" requests (generally, state agency data match requests or data analysis requests focused on answering programmatic questions, program reporting, or program process improvement). Additionally, the following list is not an exhaustive inventory of all data linkage requests that ICS has ever received and processed. This list is updated annually.​

Please click here to view inventory.​​