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Key Database Statistics

Sentinel Distributed Database (SDD) Statistics Summary: 2000-2023

The Sentinel Distributed Database has a total of 463.3 million unique patient identifiers spanning the 2000 to 2023 time period. If patients move between health plans, they may have more than one patient identifier. 342 million patients have at least one day of drug and medical coverage.

Of those with both medical and drug coverage, there are:

  • 112.9 million members currently accruing new data
  • 1.1 billion person-years of data 
  • 19.7 billion pharmacy dispensings 
  • 20.2 billion unique medical encounters 
  • 67.3 million members with at least one laboratory test result

Additionally, the Sentinel Distributed Database contains 11.6 million deliveries with a mother-infant linkage.

Member Enrollment in the Sentinel Distributed Database, by Year

Distribution of Cumulative Enrollment of Members in the Sentinel Distributed Database

Length of Member Enrollment Spans in the Sentinel Distributed Database

Member Distribution of the Sentinel Distributed Database by Geographical Region

Age Distribution of Actively Enrolled Members in the Sentinel Distributed Database

Sex Distribution of Members in the Sentinel Distributed Database

Growth of the Sentinel Distributed Database

Race Distribution of Members in the Sentinel Distributed Database

Ethnicity Distribution of Members in the Sentinel Distributed Database

How Mother-Infant Linkage was Created

The Sentinel Common Data Model (SCDM) includes a Mother-Infant Linkage (MIL) table that enables the routine evaluation of medical product exposures during pregnancy on outcomes observed during infancy. Mothers and infants are matched mainly on family subscriber numbers and, when available, birth certificate data.  Most matches were deterministic, though probabilistic matching methods were also used by some Data Partners. More information about the MIL table may be found in the Mother-Infant Linkage FAQ

Sentinel's algorithm for determining linkage with an infant requires an assignment of an infant patient identifier within the first year of life. Potential Linkages are discarded if an infant patient identifier is not assigned within one year of the linkage date. Therefore, data in 2022 is incomplete because a full year of eligibility for linkage has not elapsed at all Data Partners.

The Sentinel Distributed Database has:

  • 6 Data Partners populating the MIL table
  • 11,685,844 linked deliveries
  • 71.4% linkage rate

Last updated: 12/15/23

Delivery Linkage Rates, by Year

Delivery Linkage Rates, by Mother's Age