Blog Entries
 By Steven Randazzo On Monday, September 24, 2012 - 4:58pm
Did you know that the guidelines for the child growth standards came from the Center for Disease Control’s (CDC) National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES)? NHANES, one of the longest running and comprehensive health surveys in the world, has been a critical source for health information and standards since 1959. NHANES provides a snapshot of the health of the United States and a formula for conducting surveys that have been replicated all over the world. NHANES is unique, in that it requires a true commitment from 10,000 Americans over a two year cycle. Different from other surveys, every American has a chance to participate in the survey and in addition to an interview, it includes a medical exam. Read more » |
 By Aman Bhandari On Tuesday, September 18, 2012 - 12:42pm
Co-authored by @GHideas and @worksteven Updated September 26, 2012 Hundreds of codeathons are held throughout this country every year resulting in the development of innovative applications, like the “Like” button on Facebook, or solutions to critical social and health problems, like childhood obesity. Four codeathons are coming up that are focused on creating solutions in health care that you should check out. Groundwork, Sept. 28 - 29, Baltimore, MD - Sign up here SXSW Interactive Hack-a-thon 1.0, Sept. 29 - 30, Austin, TX - Sign up here The Feast Conference Hackathon 2012, Oct. 4 - 5, New York, NY - Sign up here Health Literacy Hackathon, Oct. 13 - 14 - Sign up here Read more » |
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By Steven Randazzo On Tuesday, September 11, 2012 - 4:01pm
The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Innovation Team is taking new steps to make it easier for people to connect and find information on our innovation activities. As an example, we have used Twitter to promote the first time public voting for selecting input on the HHSinnovates Program. Here are some of the ways we are connecting with you. HHS Innovation Team Update – This monthly newsletter highlights the major activities and opportunities from the HHS Innovation Team. Included in this feature are announcements of new programs, new challenge competition opportunities, data sets, and other exciting news. Subscribe here, and stay up-to-date on what’s going on. Read more » |
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By Steven Randazzo On Thursday, August 23, 2012 - 9:39am
Below is a guest post by Brian P. Keefe, Cancer Research Training Award Fellow, National Cancer Institute. Do you need a hint regarding the health behaviors, beliefs, and knowledge of the American public? The National Cancer Institute’s (NCI) Health Information National Trends Survey (HINTS) collects data on how Americans use, interact with, and understand health information, and assesses health-related attitudes, knowledge, and behaviors. In particular, this national survey focuses on how adults aged 18 years and older use differing communication channels to obtain health information for themselves and loved ones. The newest HINTS dataset and supporting documents, released last week, are currently available for download on the HINTS website. Read more » |
 By Bryan Sivak On Wednesday, August 22, 2012 - 9:42am
Earlier this summer, the U.S. Chief Information Officer, Steven VanRoekel released the federal government’s new digital strategy which aims to shift the way government information is accessed and consumed. Instead of focusing on producing a final product, which has been common practice for years, the government will now be making content more accurate, available and secure. One major tool in the information technology tool box being used to achieve this goal is the use of Application Programming Interfaces (APIs). An API is a set of tools for building software applications. But more importantly, an API makes information more accessible. This is important for two reasons. First, the use of APIs make it easier to replicate government information across more places than ever before. APIs enable automatic updates of information when content is syndicated on other websites, while reducing actual person hours currently spent manually updating content. Read more » |