Health Datapalooza 2012

The ONC has announced the 3rd Annual Health Data Initiative Forum or also known as Health Datapalooza 2012. This year’s Health Datapalooza will be held on June 5-6 in Washington DC. As it did last year, the event will assemble data experts, technology developers, policy makers, all levels of the health care stakeholders, consumers, and community advocates. The event will also be showcasing the “best and brightest” new applications incorporating government data. Audiences will hear what the applications do and how they use health data to impact public health. This year the spotlight for the applications and tools will be aimed at audiences that include: consumers & patients, providers & payers, public health & communities. Applications to showcase your work are due by March 30th.

Todd Park the former HSS CTO and now the Federal CTO will return to keynote and speak about one of his personal projects with HSS. Matt Miller will be there to present the Apps Demo Challenge. And like last year there will be a Data & Apps Expo along with panels and breakout sessions. This year will also focus on last fall’s ONC launch of the Consumer e-Health Program. Members of the Pledge Community along with others working to engage consumers as partners in their health through IT are encouraged to participate. Registration is open by mail and online through May 29, 2012.

With a central part of Health Datapalooza being the showcase of apps and tools, there will be a need for judges. They are looking for individuals with interest or experience in health apps and health data. If you are interested in being a virtual judge or finding out more information on judging, see this page.

In 2010, the Institute of Medicine (IOM) and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) launched the Community Health Data Initiative which is now known as the Health Data Initiative (HDI). It is a public-private collaboration that “encourages innovators to utilize health data to develop applications to raise awareness of health and health system performance and spark community action to improve health.”