New health data ideas suddenly go viral in government
Have political types trying to look cool unleashed a monster? [video]
Your mind will truly be blown (mine was, and I see a lot of these videos) by the most ‘un-government-like’ firestorm of innovation you’ve ever heard of.
These folks seem to have opened Pandora’s box.
Here’s the press release on the Community Health Data Initiative from the HHS:
Putting Data and Innovation to Work to Help Communities and Consumers Improve Health
HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and Institute of Medicine President Harvey Fineberg today launched a national initiative to share a wealth of new community health data that will drive innovation and lead to the creation of new applications and tools to improve the health of Americans.
To help citizens, clinicians and local leaders use data to improve health and value of health care, the Community Health Data Initiative (CHDI) is turning to Web application developers, mobile phone applications, social media, and other cutting-edge information technologies to “put our public health data to work.”
“Our national health data constitute a precious resource that we are paying billions to assemble, but then too often wasting,” Secretary Sebelius said.
“When information sits on the shelves of government offices, it is underperforming. We need to bring these data alive. If made easily accessible by the public, our data can help raise awareness of health status and trigger efforts to improve it.”
Kathleen Sebelius,President, Institute of Medicine
The data can help our communities determine where action is most needed and what approaches might be most helpful.
As a nation, we can and should harness the exploding creativity in our information technology and media sectors to help us get the most public benefit out of our data investments.”
“In every science-based endeavor, data are the key to effective action,” said Dr. Fineberg. “We need to make more creative and vigorous use of the data we generate now, and we need to create a demand-and-use cycle that will bring about even better health information in the future.”
The Initiative was announced at a Community Health Data Forum on June 2 at the National Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Medicine (IOM).
Federal and community leaders were joined by developers and technology pioneers who demonstrated 16 innovative applications that make use of publicly available health data.
Most of the sample applications have been developed or refined in the three months since HHS and IOM hosted a meeting on March 11 to explore the feasibility of an effort along the lines of the CHDI.
At the heart of the Initiative, increasing amounts of federally generated community health data will be made publicly available, in easily accessible and useful formats.
Secretary Sebelius announced that by the end of 2010, a new HHS Health Indicators Warehouse will be deployed online,
providing currently available and new HHS data on national, state, regional, and county health performance – on indicators such as rates of smoking, obesity, diabetes, access to healthy food, utilization of health care services, etc. – in an easy-to-use “one stop data shop.”
The Warehouse will also include information on proven ways to improve performance on particular indicators.
Users will be able to explore all of this data on the Warehouse Web site, download any and all of it for free, and integrate it easily into their own Web sites and applications.
The Initiative envisions an expanding array of applications being built using HHS’ data, as well as data supplied by other sources.
Community leaders, consumers, employers, providers, and others can choose among independently developed applications to help in health assessment, planning and action.
The CHDI does not endorse particular applications, but rather enables their independent development through easier access to expanded, free data.
Communities, professionals and consumers can then choose the applications they find most useful.
An initial sampling of applications was demonstrated at the Forum today, providing an intriguing glimpse into the kinds of creative innovations the Initiative seeks to spur.
The demonstrations included Web tools that allow citizens to easily understand health performance in one county versus another, dashboards that allow civic leaders to get a detailed understanding of their community’s health status and how they might improve it, an online game that enables players to learn local health status facts, enhanced Web search that integrates hospital performance data into hospital search results, and mobile phone-based tools that put exciting new health information at consumers’ fingertips.
To learn more about the Community Health Data Initiative, please visit this website
Secretary Sebelius believes that by making community health data easily accessible, it will help greatly in improving health care in America.
How easy will it be for anyone to access community health data?
Secretary Sebelius announced that by the end of 2010, a new HHS Health Indicators Warehouse will be deployed online, providing currently available and new HHS data on national, state, regional, and county health performance – on indicators such as rates of smoking, obesity, diabetes, access to healthy food, utilization of health care services, etc. – in an easy-to-use “one stop data shop.”
The Warehouse will also include information on proven ways to improve performance on particular indicators.
Users will be able to explore all of this data on the Warehouse Web site, download any and all of it for free, and integrate it easily into their own Web sites and applications.
I found this article:
http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data_access/chdi.htm
In the article it says:
The HHS Health Indicators Warehouse that is currently under development will serve as the data hub for the initiative. We consider health indicators to be measurable characteristics that describe the health of a population (such as life expectancy, mortality, disease incidence or prevalence, or other health states); determinants of health (such as health behaviors, health risk factors, physical environments, and socioeconomic environments); and health care access, cost, quality, and use. Depending on the measure, a health indicator may be defined for a specific population, place, political jurisdiction, or geographic area. NCHS is working with data, content, and application experts to develop this interactive system that will represent a major infusion of free, easily accessible HHS data. While the warehouse is under development, we are making several resources available.’
It clearly states that while the warehouse is still under development, community health data can now be easily accessed. In fact, the article provides links to these data.
On the surface, this seems to be a good solution to problems with health care. However, won’t the privacy of some individuals be compromised because of data becoming easily accessible to everybody online?
I agree with Grace here – this seems like a great idea on the surface. I’ve been reading a lot lately about Open Source Data and how it can help,especially in times of crisis. I watched an excellent TED talks video with a speech by Tim Berners-Lee on this subject a while ago:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OM6XIICm_qo
Privacy is important. For this Healthcare program to work, they need to implement safety features that will protect a person’s information and relevant data. But, this is a good project, as long as it can be implemented correctly, then it will be successful.
This health care issue is important and should be given priority and the much needed attention. Our government and private organizations should work together to be able to come up with the best possible solution. with cooperation, anything is possible.