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Become a member and receive career-enhancing benefits

Our top priority is providing value to members. Your Member Services team is here to ensure you maximize your ACS member benefits, participate in College activities, and engage with your ACS colleagues. It's all here.

Become a Member
Become a member and receive career-enhancing benefits

Our top priority is providing value to members. Your Member Services team is here to ensure you maximize your ACS member benefits, participate in College activities, and engage with your ACS colleagues. It's all here.

Membership Benefits
ACS
Quality Programs

Participant Use Data File (PUF)

The Participant Use Data File (PUF) is a Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA)-compliant data file containing cases submitted to the Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery Accreditation and Quality Improvement Program (MBSAQIP®) Data Registry. The PUF contains patient-level, aggregate data and does not identify hospitals, health care providers, or patients. The intended purpose of this file is to provide researchers at participating sites with a data resource they can use to investigate and advance the quality of care delivered to the metabolic and bariatric surgical patient through the analysis of cases captured by MBSAQIP.

The PUF is provided at no additional cost to employees (surgeons, researchers, bariatric program staff, etc) of MBSAQIP participant centers. With over 200,000 metabolic and bariatric cases captured each year, the MBSAQIP PUF is the largest, bariatric-specific, clinical dataset in the country and serves as an invaluable resource to investigators looking to answer important clinical questions in this field. It is part of the mission of the MBSAQIP to make this data available to all participants to improve the power and reliability of clinical research and further propel innovation in the field of metabolic and bariatric surgery. The data files are made available in a delimited text, SAS, and SPSS file type.

The 2022 dataset will be the third PUF consisting of data from the new registry (est. 1/1/2020). Due to significant updates, please refer to the latest corresponding reference documents for this PUF as they may not align with historical references.

The 2022 MBSAQIP PUF contains 230,707 cases submitted from 924 MBSAQIP-participating centers.

The PUF User Guide is designed to accompany the Participant Use Data File and is available for download. The sections contained herein will provide the user with information on how to request the PUF, contents of the data files, data collection background, data limitations, and answers to frequently asked questions.

2022 MBSAQIP PUF User Guide

This user guide applies specifically to the 2022 PUF dataset and is updated with each subsequent PUF.

Seven MBSAQIP PUFs have been previously released:

2021 MBSAQIP PUF – 211,254 cases submitted by 902 centers 2021 MBSAQIP PUF User Guide

2020 MBSAQIP PUF – 168,568 cases submitted by 885 centers (2020 MBSAQIP PUF User Guide)

2019 MBSAQIP PUF – 206,570 cases submitted by 868 centers (2019 MBSAQIP PUF User Guide)

2018 MBSAQIP PUF—204,837 cases submitted by 854 centers (2018 MBSAQIP PUF User Guide)

2017 MBSAQIP PUF—200,374 cases submitted by 832 centers (2017 MBSAQIP PUF User Guide)

2016 MBSAQIP PUF—186,772 cases submitted by 791 centers (2016 MBSAQIP PUF User Guide)

2015 MBSAQIP PUF—168,903 cases submitted by 742 centers (2015 MBSAQIP PUF User Guide)

For questions or comments about the Participant Use Data File please contact Rasa Krapikas at rkrapikas@facs.org.