all star (n.) One chosen for a team of star players.
More federal, state, and local government entities provide open access to valuable datasets each year. This positive development also presents a new and unique challenge – policy makers, journalists, entrepreneurs and others need better tools to help identify “the good stuff.” Finding high quality health data is a difficult task. There are many useful data portal sites, such as HealthData.gov, but no directories that explicitly showcase a curated list of excellent health data resources.
Enter Health Data All Stars - a directory of 50 prominent domestic resources for health data at the federal, state and local levels housed on the Health Data Consortium’s website. To compile the directory, we spoke with leading health researchers, government officials, entrepreneurs, advocates and others to identify the health data resources that matter most. We were looking for websites or applications that provide easy access to (and/or display in tables, graphs, maps, etc.) public domain health data.
User Features
- Highlights user-friendly data exploration and visualization tools such as the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute’s County Health Rankings and the Kaiser Family Foundation’s State Health Facts
- Showcases powerful government data query tools such as the Health Indicators Warehouse and CDC Wonder
- Exposes resources that offer application programming interfaces (APIs) for web developers, and/or other means to export raw data for analysis or re-use
- Provides a browsable list of 50 All Stars–all contained within a single webpage
- Allows users to filter the list by health topic, geography, data view and export options
- Presents each All Star on a unique page including: a screenshot of the interface, a description of its data and functionality, reasons why we’ve included it in the directory, and, a prominent link to visit and explore the website
We welcome your comments to help us refine the list and descriptions, and suggest new resources!
Forum One Communications conducted research, and designed and developed Health Data All Stars. This work was funded by the California HealthCare Foundation, and also includes a list of California-specific health data resources.