KDCA and NHIS Open 640,000 Tuberculosis Data Records to Boost Research

Disclosure of Linked Tuberculosis Notification and Health Information Data

The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) and the National Health Insurance Service (NHIS) opened the K-TB-N (KDCA-Tuberculosis-NHIS), a big data set that links tuberculosis notification data with the NHIS's health information, on the 'Health Insurance Big Data Platform' on October 31.

This release aims to promote tuberculosis research and to provide scientific evidence for prevention and management policies. Since 2022, the KDCA has been collaborating with the NHIS to prepare for data integration and to verify data consistency.

The tuberculosis data provided to researchers consists of 637,788 raw notification records of tuberculosis patients from 2011 to 2024. These records are supplied after a de-identification process. The data will be updated every September to reflect the previous year's tuberculosis notifications.

Researchers who wish to use the data can apply for the necessary items according to their research purposes through the 'Customized Research Database (DB) Application' service on the Health Insurance Big Data Platform. The provided data can only be accessed within the closed network environment of the NHIS Big Data Analysis Center and is managed through strict security procedures.

Im Seungkwan, Commissioner of the KDCA, stated, "With the opening of the K-TB-N tuberculosis big data, a foundation has been established for researchers to conduct various analyses and studies, which is expected to further strengthen the scientific evidence needed for tuberculosis prevention and management policies."