Healthdata.gov Initiative Connects Users to Important Health Data to Support Research, Healthcare Innovation and Transparency

ST. PAUL, Minn., Jan. 13, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- GovDelivery, the leading provider of cloud-based solutions enhancing the citizen experience, today announced availability of a new case study detailing the recent success of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) in increasing accessibility and usability of national health data.  Leveraging technology, HHS updated its Healthdata.gov data repository to create a modern public data portal that affords better access to high-value health and social services data in support of research, healthcare innovations and transparency.

As part of the initiative, HHS needed to update the Healthdata.gov’s underlying technology for more efficient performance and a better user experience so researchers, providers, and health insurance teams would have better access to health data. This required technology that could aggregate “big data” from Healthdata.gov’s data sources to create a big-picture view for its diverse audiences. Once the new solution was in place, another key goal was to drive audiences to these health data assets while continuously improving user experience on the site.

“Government resources should be openly available and reusable,” said Damon Davis, director of the Health Data Initiative, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. “We’re looking forward to capitalizing on our communication opportunities through GovDelivery to amplify the health innovation message and drive a larger audience to understanding how much data are available to them.”

“Healthdata.gov is a great example of how making government resources available directly online can help create better lives for people,” said Andrew Hoppin, President of NuCivic at GovDelivery.  “This enhanced health data portal is connecting more people to valuable services and improving access to critical health data resources, promoting healthcare innovation and supporting HHS’s mission of fostering advances in medicine, public health and social services."

The Healthdata.gov project tapped the GovDelivery Open Data solution to create an open-source community to support a number of important outcomes.  The organization successfully created the U.S. government’s most comprehensive catalog of health data. Healthdata.gov now includes more than 2,000 data sets from organizations like Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the Administration for Children and Families, U.S. Food and Drug Administration, and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, as well as many state and local governments.   Additionally, HHS was able to create opportunities for more entrepreneurs, payers, providers, patients and developers to leverage data for decisions. Organizations like Propublica, ROWD Map, DocGraph and many more already leverage the massive, centralized data resources to improve visibility into patient care, healthcare costs, risk analysis and other key performance indicators to improve quality of care around the world.

For more detail on the Healthdata.gov initiative, please visit http://www.govdelivery.com/pdfs/SS_HHS_healthdata.pdf. To view additional GovDelivery success stories, please visit https://www.govdelivery.com/resources/downloads/.

About GovDelivery
Over one thousand public sector organizations use GovDelivery’s highly-secure cloud solutions every day to enhance the citizen experience for more than 100 million people. GovDelivery offers leading solutions for managing government communications, internal and external learning, and open data. The GovDelivery Network offers a unique and impactful way for public sector organizations to work together to cross promote content and increase digital reach. Organizations using GovDelivery see higher utilization of citizen services and greater citizen engagement. GovDelivery is an Actua (Nasdaq:ACTA) company.

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