HHS Launches Health Data Site To Boost Industry Innovations

HHS has launched a Web portal that allows health IT developers to access health data in an effort to bring about more health care innovations, Modern Healthcare reports.

HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said that the Health Indicators Warehouse portal “provides a new public resource needed to fuel development of innovative IT applications” to improve health care.

Portal Details

Currently, the warehouse contains nearly 1,200 health indicators derived from 170 data sources (Conn, Modern Healthcare, 2/13). Health indicators are defined as characteristics that describe the health of a population. Such characteristics include:

• Access to care;
• Incidence of disease;
• Life expectancy;
• Mortality;
• Risk factors; and
• Socioeconomic conditions.

The Web portal is part of HHS’ open-government initiative, which is designed to make federal operations more transparent (Mosquera, Government Health IT, 2/14).

Source: iHealthBeat