UK and U.S. researchers offer blueprint for open data
National Health Service (NHS) England and GovLab at New York University have joined forces to encourage the open use of data in healthcare settings.
Their 88-page new joint blueprint, “The Open Data Era in Health and Social Care” recommends ways to enable a conversation about how the healthcare system can maximize the impact of sharing open data through establishing priorities and clear ways of measuring benefits.
The blueprint suggests a framework to review the potential for open data in:
- Holding healthcare organizations and providers accountable for treatment outcomes.
- Enabling patients to make informed choices from among the healthcare options available to them.
- Improving the efficiency and cost-effectiveness of delivering healthcare.
- Improving treatment outcomes.
- Educating patients and their families and make healthcare institutions more responsive.
- Fueling new healthcare companies and innovation.
This blueprint’s framework also reflects how NHS England can develop an evidence-based program to guide investments and research into the benefits of open data. Questions the blueprint is intended to answer include:
- What kinds of evidence can we gather to help measure the impact of open data?
- What methodologies are most effective at gathering actionable evidence?
- How can we use evidence to differentiate and prioritize among various open data initiatives?
- What steps are required to create an environment within which data is used to constantly generate and refresh information and learning?
“Programs that last and deliver real value may start from the seed of an interesting new idea, but they get strength and staying power only when they are truly evidence-based and evidence-adjusted. The goal of this new blueprint is to help design such long-lasting and truly valuable programs,” according to the GovLab.
Read the report here.