The document outlines various innovative uses of data from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) by different external tools to improve public health insights and consumer decision-making. Examples include tools for visualizing cruise ship inspection reports, predicting disease outbreaks, and comparing healthcare providers, which make critical health data accessible and actionable for both consumers and professionals. Each example showcases how these tools facilitate informed choices and enhance healthcare efficiency without endorsement from HHS.

1. David Portnoy
HHS Entrepreneur-in-Residence
U.S. Dept Health & Human Services
Founder, Demand-Driven Open Data
David.Portnoy@HHS.gov | @DPortnoy
Industry Uses
of HHS Data

2. The following examples demonstrate
compelling and creative uses of data
provided by U.S. Department of
Health and Human Services (HHS)
agencies.
These examples do not constitute endorsement, approval or official HHS
communication. They’re for illustrative purposes only.

3. CDC reports for cruise ship inspections Outside Tool: “Cruise Control”
Value created with external tool
Standardized summary views make insights on health and
safety easily available by ship across all inspection days,
making it practical for consumers to use these in their selection
criteria. It would be time consumer to read through reports one
day at a time and difficult to compare multiple ships.

4. OpenFDA Iodine
Value created with external tool
By augmenting adverse event and drug label data with
additional external data sources and community reviews, Iodine
helps consumers decide between similarly indicated drugs.
Getting such insights tailored by a patient’s demographics and
needs isn’t possible with OpenFDA alone.

5. CMS public use files for provider utilization Outside Tool: “Treatment Tracker”

6. DiseaseCast provides interactive disease visualization tools
on its website. It seeks to predict disease outbreaks using
state/local and CDC data.
CDC’s NNDSS and MMWR DiseaseCast
Value created with external tool
The DiseaseCast animation makes it easy to visualize the spread of
a disease along temporal and geographical dimensions. It’s used
by physicians and health officials to prioritize interventions. Without
it, busy professionals would need to spend much more time looking
through individual reports and may not spot trends until too late.

7. CMS tool for Open Payments data Outside Tool: “Dollars for Docs”

8. CDC Health Indicators Warehouse Visualizations in Tableau Public
Value created with external tool
Interactive visual maps help policy makers and social service
organizations target geographies most in need. Visual
correlations help focus their efforts on programs that could make
the most difference. Without these tools, such analytics would
be time consuming and inconsistent across organizations.

9. CMS Physician Referral Extract DocGraph Teaming Data

10. HealthPocket aims at consumer-oriented tools to improve on HealthCare.gov and Medicare.gov

11. DocSpot
Docspot uses data from data.medicare.gov as well as state data

12. CMS Physician Compare US News Doctor Finder

13. Nursing Home / Hospital / Dialysis Facility Compare Yelp Consumer Protection Initiative
Centers for Medicare and Medicaid
Services (CMS) for 4,600 hospitals,
15,000 nursing homes, and 6,300 dialysis
clinics in the US and will be updated
quarterly

14. Examples from Tableau Public
Geography of DiabetesHealthcare Costs Obesity Comparison Tool

15. Google Public Data Explorer