OBJECTIVE: To describe key methods and issues in conducting survival analyses, especially using Medicare (and other) administrative data.

PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Survival analyses are rich , informative, and underutilized methods for examining out comes whose timing is important . Medicare files contain the necessary information for conducting such analyses, including identification of cohorts, definition of events, censoring of observations, and adjustment for covariates.

CONCLUSION: Survival analyses can readily be conducted using the information contained in administrative data files.