HHS starts health data section on Data.gov

A new section on the Data.gov site features 127 datasets, a blog, and a catalog of applications developed to display and analyze health data.

The Data.gov site has a new section devoted to health-related datasets with special features such as a catalog of health-related applications for displaying and analyzing the data, a forum for discussion, a blog and links to other data.

The Health and Human Services Department launched the HealthData.gov site Feb. 14 on Data.gov. The new site has 197 datasets available to the public for free, including community health indicators, a farmers market database and a search of infant formula recalls.

Todd Park, chief technology officer at HHS, introduced the new HealthData.gov blog with its first entry on the new website that featured seven comments from health industry leaders and vendors.

In other Gov 2.0 news, Google announced it is opening its Public Data Explorer application to additional data in the Dataset Publishing Language, an XML-based format that enables visualizations and animations.

“We’ve been using DSPL internally to produce all of the datasets and visualizations in the product; you can now use it to upload and visualize your own DSPL-formatted datasets in your own applications,” Google said.

The 27 datasets on Public Data Explorer include statistics such as labor productivity and municipality population density. More data is being added on a weekly basis.