Data Matching to Allocate Doctors to Patients in a Microsimulation Model of the Primary Care Process in New Zealand Martin von Randow 1 , Peter Davis 1 , Roy Lay-Yee 1 , and Janet Pearson 1 Abstract The authors aimed to use existing data to create a microsimulation model of the primary care process in New Zealand, including realistically simulating the allocation of general practitioners (GPs) to a population sample. This is important because GP behavior is likely to be a major determinant of future cost and service outcomes. Two nationally representative data sets were matched: a sample of GPs and their patients from the National Primary Medical Care Survey (NPMCS) and a population sample from the New Zealand Health Survey (NZHS). Matching involved first dividing the data sets into cells based on common variables. Further variables were then included in a distance function to guide matching within cells. A transportation optimization algorithm allocated GPs based on these—on similarities in patients’ attributes. Statistical matching performed well with high correlations for patient attributes and reduced average absolute rank differences on proportions of patients among GPs compared to random matching. Low Kullback– Leibler (K–L) divergences confirmed that our method of statistical matching had allocated GPs realistically. Models of primary care too frequently omit the role of the practitioner in driving health service outcomes. The authors developed a method to impute characteristics of GPs to a population-based microsimulation model of primary care. Keywords data matching, data synthesis, microsimulation, primary care Introduction There is a growing interest in the use of computer-based simulation models to represent health and other policy processes that incorporate social factors and trends (Brown & Harding, 2002; Spielauer, 2007). Of concern on the policy agenda in New Zealand and other developed societies is the impact 1 COMPASS Research Centre, The University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand Corresponding Author: Martin von Randow, COMPASS Research Centre, The University of Auckland, Private Bag 92019, Auckland Mail Centre, Auckland 1142, NEW ZEALAND Email: m.vonrandow@auckland.ac.nz Social Science Computer Review 30(3) 358-368 ª The Author(s) 2012 Reprints and permission: sagepub.com/journalsPermissions.nav DOI: 10.1177/0894439311417153 http://ssc.sagepub.com