SUMMARY – CORE A Core A is the administrative core, with the following broad objectives: First, we seek to establish and strengthen the internal structure of the P01 research team. The goal is to work with investigators to develop priorities and support adherence to these priorities, facilitate planning and implementation of meetings, allow for data transfers, and to ensure that members of the team are able to collaborate effectively with others, thus avoiding duplication of effort or poor communication. Second, we wish to ensure that all members of the research team keep up with cross-disciplinary developments and methods, and maintain a strategic focus on future research developments. Ongoing developments in a large number of disciplines are either central to or touch on our research, and it is sometimes a struggle to maintain knowledge in these areas. We propose to continue our research retreat networks, with both P01 key personnel and non-P01 researchers with innovative work in related areas. We also propose to continue an advisory board to provide external input on our future direction. Third, we want to distribute results of the research widely and foster connections across institutions and disciplines. We seek to disseminate current research through conference presentations and publication in peer-reviewed journals in relevant disciplines, to provide information about the use of claims data to the wider group of healthcare researchers, to continue interactions with authorities and experts on health care policy, to maintain a website for dissemination of Dartmouth data, and to continue our support of Dartmouth’s Dataverse website to ensure reproducibility and rigor in our research. Finally, we want to create a platform to consider and approve funding for pilot projects that encourage new and innovative research. We have budgeted funds to encourage pilot studies related to the P01 research agenda. We describe two pilots in the proposal to give a flavor of such new research and a hint of its potential. One, led by Clifford Rosen, MD, proposes to validate observational studies of drug combination effects in mouse models. The second, led by Leila Agha, PhD, seeks to measure spillover effects arising from payments by pharmaceutical companies to physicians. Each pilot helps advance the general goals of the P01, whether by testing the underlying validity of observational data in helping to shed light on risks of multiple drug use (as in Dr. Rosen’s study) or by documenting the potential effects of financial incentives in promoting the overuse (or appropriate use) of new drug innovations (as in Dr. Agha’s study).