Health and Human Services Chief Technology Officer Susannah Fox traveled to the United Kingdom recently to share how the U.S. uses technology and data to empower people at every level of healthcare, she says in a blog post.
She represented the U.S. government at the Health and Care Innovation Expo organized by the U.K.'s National Health System (NHS) in Manchester, England.
'[U.S.] efforts to open every spigot on every data pipeline has created a wellspring of public and private innovation that gives value and meaning to the pursuit of health that we in government had never imagined," she says.
The U.S. and NHS have collaborated both on challenges they face as well as solutions. The Obesity Data Challenge, for instance, resulted in an array of data tools, visualizations and apps, Fox (pictured) says.
In addition, HHS and NHS experts have worked together to develop common quantitative measures of post-operative rehabilitation for patients recovering from knee and hip surgery.
In a June 2014 report, researchers from the U.S. and U.K. said while there is "widespread recognition" of open data's possibilities, the overall healthcare industry remains in the adolescent stages of understanding the best ways to take advantage of these resources. The report, from New York University's GovLab and NHS, aimed to created a blueprint for the use of open data in healthcare.
Meanwhile, HealthData.gov, the site designed to be a one-stop resource for health information and health datasets from the U.S. government, has been getting a refresh to improve usability.
To learn more:
- read the blog post