In This Issue:

Introduction; Background; HHS Data Sharing Efforts; Early State Efforts to Free the Data and Recommendations for Califronia; Conclusion; Authors; About the Foundation; and Endnotes.

Excerpt from Introduction

It was considered revolutionary when the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) began releasing weather data to the public for free more than 30 years ago. Today, NOAA data are used by researchers, weather forecasters, the insurance industry, and application developers to fuel services used by the public daily such as The Weather Channel.

Following NOAA's example, the US department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has embarked on a campaign to increase the amount of new data in the public domain, make data more accessible and usable, and publicize the availability of its vast supply of health information. HHS hopes to spur development of a health information ecosystem that will inform health care decision making by patients, providers, payers, and policymakers.