The Health and Human Services Department unveiled new data and new opportunities for researchers and developers as part of Health Datapalooza IV held at the Omni Shoreham in Washington, D.C.
“A more data-driven and transparent health care marketplace can help consumers and their families make important decisions about their care,” said HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius. “The administration is committed to making the health system more transparent and harnessing data to empower consumers.”
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services released county-level data on Medicare spending and use for the first time along with selected data on hospital outpatient charges. CMS also released a data set on Medicare beneficiaries with chronic conditions, which along with the county-level data set, will aim to help researchers, data innovators and the public better understand Medicare spending and service use to spur innovation.
The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology released additional information on the adoption of specific electronic health record systems. Additionally, HHS is co-sponsoring a national competition called “code-a-palooza” to design an app using Medicare data primary-care providers can use to help manage patient care. The winner of the contest will get $25,000.
In addition, ONC, in coordination with the Health Resources and Services Administration, selected the winners of the Apps4TotsHealth Challenge, which was launched to help parents and caregivers of young children better manage their nutrition and physical activity. ONC also announced today the launch of the Blue Button Co-Design Challenge, developed to spur the creation of new applications to allow patients to better use their own health data to improve their own care.
