National Physician Database
The National Physician Database (NPDB) contains data on fee-for-service physician payments in Canada.
Source
Data come from provincial and territorial medical health care insurance plans.
Data Elements
This database contains:
- socio-demographic, payment and service utilization data of fee-for-service physicians
- service utilization data, by age-group and sex, of their patients.
Download NPDB data elements 4.0 (PDF)
Purpose
The purpose of NPDB is to:
- support CIHI's mandate
- collect, process and analyse summary data on physician services and payments
- facilitate physician resource and service utilization planning
- support related approved analysis and research
Data Quality
Through our Data Quality Enhancement Program, CIHI strives to ensure that the quality of the information in our data holdings is suited to its intended uses, and that data users are provided good information about data quality.
Privacy
Data disclosure is determined by CIHI's privacy principles and policies. All data are subject to a provincially and territorially imposed access policy. Access depends on the type of client, the type of data, the level of aggregation and the province or territory of interest.
Availability
- Most recent year - 2009-2010
- Next release - 2010-2011 (September 2012)
- Historical data: 1989-1990 to 2008-2009
Publications
- Putting Away the Stethoscope for Good? Toward a New Perspective on Physician Retirement
- National Physician Database, 2008-2009 Data Release
- Profiling Physicians by Payment Program: A Closer Look at Three Provinces
Disclaimer:
Over time, the Average Payment Report, Full-Time Equivalent Physicians Report, National Grouping System Categories Report, Reciprocal Billing Report and the Alternative Payment Report have all been combined into one single annual report: National Physician Database Data Release
- Average Payment per Physician (APP) Report, Canada (ended with 2004-2005 report)
- Full-Time Equivalent Physicians (FTE) Report, Canada (ended with 2004-2005 report)
- Physicians in Canada: Average Gross Fee-for-Service Payments (ended with 2005-2006 report)
- Physicians in Canada: Fee-for-Service Utilization (ended with 2005-2006 report)
- Physicians in Canada: The Status of Alternative Payment Programs (ended with 2005-2006 report)
- Reciprocal Billing (RB) Report, Canada (ended with 2004-2005 report)
- National Grouping System Categories (NGS) Report, Canada (ended with 2004-2005 report)
Data Request
Expert/Advisory Groups
The Expert Group on Physician Databases advises CIHI on data quality, methodology and product development of the National Physician Database (NPDB) and the Scott’s Medical Database (formerly Southam Medical Database) (SMDB). The group is composed of individuals with experience or interest in physician resource planning, medical care utilization data or database management. Members are from the provincial/territorial ministries of health, medical associations/organizations and the researcher community.
