On June 4th, the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) officially launched a public sector / private sector collaboration dubbed: The Community Health Data Initiative (CHDI). The initiative will make data sets pertaining to public health open and easily accessible.It is hoped that this will result in innovative, creative and practical uses to improve both individual and public health.
Data sets released include information on: smoking rates, obesity rates, access to healthy food, and utilization of medical services and a host of other health related data stores, all available in open and downloadable formats.
The result of the data being released has become evident almost immediately. Within the 12 weeks that HHS posted on an interim site, citizens took up the challenge and began writing apps and mashups including the following examples:
- An interactive community health dashboard that allows civic leaders and citizens to see a “report card” of health performance in their county and learn about the latest best practices that other communities have implemented to improve their performance;
- Integration of patient satisfaction ratings from Medicare’s Hospital Compare database into web search results for hospitals – bringing this information to your fingertips
- Amazing new health mapping tools that help consumers, providers, and policymakers focus on the right questions and make better informed choices
- A brilliant new combination of GPS device and app that allows asthmatics to have their inhalers automatically transmit the location and time of each use – producing an anonymized, real-time map of asthma incidence that can provide crucial guidance regarding how to target interventions to reduce the burden of asthma
- A (highly addictive) new online card game that engages you in a discovery of your community’s health and well-being status and how it compares to other communities in a head-to-head clash
- And more!
HHS plans to capitalize on this early success by continuing to expand the supply and release of data over the coming months.
Resources:
Read the formal White House release here,
Read the formal HHS release here,
Watch the video of the event here,
Directly access the data here.
