Government's Health Data Website Gets a Refresh
Healthdata.gov
The site aims to make government health-related data sets more available to the public for analysis.
The Department of Health and Human Services last week unveiled a redesign of its data repository, HealthData.gov.
The site aims to make government health-related data sets more accessible to the public for analysis; the new HealthData.gov migrated old content to DKAN, an open-source, Drupal-based platform built by NuCivic, a tech company based in New York.
Damon Davis, director of the Health Data Initiative at HHS, made the announcement in a blog post. The department has been operating the site for five years, and it's still performance-testing the new site.
Eventually, HHS plans to install better sort and search functions, an improved preview function for charts and maps, links to related data sets and a system for requesting and discussing data, according to the blog post.
This is part of a broader effort at HHS to connect entrepreneurs and data scientists with federal data. In February, for instance, the department hosted an event at Washington startup hub 1776, aiming to raise awareness among the tech community about available data sets.
Data sets on HealthData.gov cover a range of topics, geographical regions and time frames, such as "Leaking Underground Storage Tanks" from the state of Hawaii, or "Motor Vehicle Occupant Death Rate By Age and Gender" for 2012 in San Francisco.