Osteopathic Medicine2: Data Resources

One can find data on physician workforce projections, medical education, research, healthcare, policy, advocacy, and more.

The Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) is the nation’s premier system of health-related telephone surveys that collect state data about U.S. residents regarding their health-related risk behaviors, chronic health conditions, and use of preventive services. Established in 1984 with 15 states, BRFSS now collects data in all 50 states as well as the District of Columbia and three U.S. territories. BRFSS completes more than 400,000 adult interviews each year, making it the largest continuously conducted health survey system in the world.

The National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI) Biologic Specimen and Data Repository is the coming together of two entities: the NHLBI Biologic Specimen Repository (NHLBI Biorepository), managed by the NHLBI, Division of Blood Diseases and Resources (DBDR), Transfusion Medicine and Cellular Therapeutics Branch, and the NHLBI Data Repository, managed by the NHLBI, Division of Cardiovascular Sciences (DCVS), Epidemiology Branch. These two programs have always had a similar mission, namely to enhance and facilitate further research in cardiovascular, pulmonary and hematologic conditions by providing access to qualified investigators to stored biospecimen and data collections.

Wide-ranging ONline Data for Epidemiologic Research -- an easy-to-use, menu-driven system that makes the information resources of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) available to public health professionals and the public at large. It provides access to a wide array of public health information.

Data.gov is the federal government's open data site, and aims to make government more open and accountable. Opening government data increases citizen participation in government, creates opportunities for economic development, and informs decision making in both the private and public sectors.

The HRSA Data Warehouse website provides maps, data, reports, and dashboards to the public about HRSA’s health care programs. The data integrates with external sources, such as the U.S. Census Bureau, providing information about HRSA’s grants, loan and scholarship programs, health centers, and other public health programs and services.

The Dataset Catalog is freely available through the National Library of Medicine. The catalog contains biomedical datasets available from various repositories. Adhering to Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable (FAIR) data management principles, the Dataset Catalog allows users to search for specific biomedical datasets and navigate among biomedical datasets by linking descriptive data.

Dataset Search is Google's search engine for datasets.
Using a simple keyword search, users can discover datasets hosted in thousands of repositories across the Web.

The Global Health Data Exchange (GHDx) is a data catalog created and supported by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME), an independent global health research center at the University of Washington. GHDx, the world’s most comprehensive catalog of surveys, censuses, vital statistics, and other health-related data.

The Global Health Observatory is the WHO's gateway to health-related statistics for more than 1000 indicators for its 194 Member States. Data are organized to monitor progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), including health status indicators to monitor progress towards for the overall health goal, indicators to track equity in health indicators, and the indicators for the specific health and health-related targets of the SDGs.

The Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project (HCUP, pronounced "H-Cup") is a family of healthcare databases and related software tools and products developed through a Federal-State-Industry partnership and sponsored by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ). HCUP databases bring together the data collection efforts of State data organizations, hospital associations, private data organizations, and the Federal government to create a national information resource of encounter-level healthcare data (HCUP Partners). HCUP includes the largest collection of longitudinal hospital care data in the United States, with all-payer, encounter-level information beginning in 1988. These databases enable research on a broad range of health policy issues, including cost and quality of health services, medical practice patterns, access to healthcare programs, and outcomes of treatments at the national, State, and local market levels.

This data is collected and supplied from agencies from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services as well as state partners. This includes the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Food and Drug Administration, and the Agency for Health Care Research and Quality, among others.

With support from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the Center developed the Health Poll Database. The goals of this database were multiple: to make the health questions more accessible, to make trends easy to find and use, to assist researchers in finding the questions they are interested in by applying topic tags to individual questions, and to educate users on the relationships between different aspects of health and health policy.

The MiTracking Program is part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Environmental Public Health Tracking Program. These data can be easily queried on the MiTracking data portal. Results are provided in tables, charts, and maps that can be downloaded, saved, and printed. The data provided by the MiTracking program can create greater awareness of environmental health concerns, and inform public health actions and programs.

The Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) Program of the National Cancer Institute (NCI) is an authoritative source of information on cancer incidence and survival in the United States. SEER currently collects and publishes cancer incidence and survival data from population-based cancer registries covering approximately 48.0 percent of the U.S. population.

The National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) is the nation’s principal health statistics agency, providing data to identify and address health issues. NCHS compiles statistical information to help guide public health and health policy decisions.
Collaborating with other public and private health partners, NCHS uses a variety of data collection mechanisms to obtain accurate information from multiple sources. This process provides a broad perspective on the population’s health, influences on health, and health outcomes.

Resources for Research (NIDDK-CR R4R) facilitates sharing of data, biospecimens, and other resources generated from studies supported by NIDDK and within NIDDK’s mission by making these resources available for request to the broader scientific and research community.

The data from NINDS-supported clinical trials are an important scientific resource, made available to the wider scientific community, while ensuring that the confidentiality and privacy of study participants are protected. NINDS requires all investigators seeking access to data from archived NINDS-supported trials to agree to certain terms and conditions.

To help researchers locate an appropriate repository for sharing or accessing data, BioMedical Informatics Coordinating Committee maintains lists of domain-specific and generalist data sharing repositories that are each described by several properties (See Repository Properties Definitions below). The listed Institute, Office, or Center (ICO) may fund the repository in whole or in part, or the repository may house data related to the ICO’s research focus. In general, NIH does not endorse or require sharing in any specific repository and encourages researchers to select the repository that is most appropriate for their data type and discipline (though such specification does exist for particular initiatives).

TRI tracks the waste management of certain toxic chemicals that may pose a threat to human health and the environment. U.S. facilities in different industry sectors must report annually how much of each chemical they release into the environment and/or managed through recycling, energy recovery and treatment, as well as any practices implemented to prevent or reduce the generation of chemical waste.

The Surveillance Resource Center provides members of the public health surveillance community organized, easy access to guidance developed by CDC and its partners for improving the practice of surveillance. Public health surveillance refers to the collection, analysis, and use of data to target public health prevention. It is the foundation of public health practice.