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Health data from HHS will be open to public
■ The federal government wants Web and smartphone application developers and anyone else to have full and free access to health-performance data.
By Bob Cook — Posted June 15, 2010
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The Dept. of Health and Human Services is opening up its data for download.
At a June 2 event in Washington with the Institute of Medicine, HHS announced the Community Health Data Initiative. The purpose, HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said, is to allow Web application developers, smartphone app developers, social media and others to "put our public health data to work."
The HHS, by the end of 2010, plans to have online a Health Indicators Warehouse, which would provide national, state, regional and county health performance on a wide range of topics, that could be downloaded for free.
Some data are already up on a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website (link).
More information is available on HHS' Health Indicators website (link).
At the HHS-IOM event, 16 technology developers demonstrated how the data could be put to use. Microsoft, for example, presented what it called its Bing Health Maps, which allow users to choose a state, then get county-level information on various health indicators, with counties color-shaded based on their performance.
Sebelius said the Health Indicators Warehouse also would include "proven ways to improve performance on particular indicators."
"Our national health data constitute a precious resource that we are paying billions to assemble, but then too often wasting," Sebelius said in a statement. "When information sits on the shelves of government offices, it is underperforming. We need to bring these data alive."
