On Monday, 16 September 2013 at 11:54, Ben Berkowitz wrote:

We're watching in the office today. Looking good Noel.

On Mon, Sep 16, 2013 at 11:50 AM, Michael Carroll <[address removed]> wrote:

Hi Ellen,

Very interesting--thanks! Are you attached to the project? I'm curious how they got around the problems of using the proprietary CPT & CDT data sets in a consumer-focused site.

Would also be nice if they had an API (couldn't find one)!

Best,

Michael

On Sep 16, 2013, at 10:52 AM, Ellen McDermott <[address removed]> wrote:

Michael- have you seen the Fair Health site? Also helpful (though I agree with your points below). 

http://www.fairhealthconsumer.org/

Best,

Ellen

Sent from my iPhone

On Sep 16, 2013, at 10:11 AM, Michael Carroll <[address removed]> wrote:

Thanks for the shout out, Aliona!

Alas, good sources of open health data are still few and far between, though things are rapidly changing. By far the most exciting recent data source available is the list of procedure prices released by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid services in May (http://www.cms.gov/Research-Statistics-Data-and-Systems/Statistics-Trends-and-Reports/Medicare-Provider-Charge-Data/index.html). The NYT and some other outlets have done some great reporting based on this data (http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/08/business/hospital-billing-varies-wildly-us-data-shows.html), but it really only scratches the surface of what's possible. Would be exciting to see some meetups/discussions focused on this and other health data sets.

Just to kvetch: One open data gripe I have about healthcare is related to coding sets. Basically, all health data (diagnoses, procedures, lab results, etc.) in somebody's health record is recorded with a coding system (ICD9/10, SNOMED, LOINC, etc.)--so you need to have the metadata for these coding systems to understand that data. A few months ago I put up free APIs for accessing that data (http://aqua.io/codes) but was forced to put some of the APIs behind pay walls because some federally-mandated coding sets are proprietary and have limitations placed on them that cripple open data access. One, CPT is owned by the AMA and only available if each user of a system pays an annual license fee. This basically prevents an non-enterprise use of this system, even just for interpreting your own health record. I've complained to people at Health & Human Services that it stifles innovation and disadvantages consumers and startups to require all procedures be coded in a proprietary data set the government doesn't own or have any control over, but results haven't been forthcoming.

Best,

Michael

@_mcarroll_

On Sep 15, 2013, at 8:59 PM, Aliona <[address removed]> wrote:

Would love to hear more regarding health tech, perhaps Michael Carroll of aqua.io, founder of HealthHackingNYC meetup http://www.meetup.com/HealthDevsNYC/members/7520254/ can think of additional points? 

On Sun, Sep 15, 2013 at 8:47 PM, Noel Hidalgo | CfA <[address removed]> wrote:

Monday morning/10:55 am EST, I'm scheduled to be on @AlyonaMink's @HuffPostLive talking #opengov #opendata #CfABrigade… 

< http://live.huffingtonpost.com >

I'll be talking about…

* Open Data saves cities money by enabling governments to collaborate and experiment along with constituents.

* It builds collaboration between government and constituents to collectively solve problems. (flu shot app in Chicago, potholes in Boston)

* Business are built (StreetEasy, Embark, Ontodia, New Amsterdam Ideas, OpenPlans, Exversion, NYC BigApps, etc…)

* Builds better government by open and honest collaboration… (Oakland's Budget App, NYC's OpenData Law)

If you have other examples you'd like me to profile, respond to this thread…

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