HHS Unveils New Web Projects Under Open Government Effort

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Thursday, December 10, 2009

HHS Unveils New Web Projects Under Open Government Effort

As part of President Obama's new open government initiative, HHS has announced the launch of three Web-based projects designed to improve information sharing, project collaboration and public health awareness, InformationWeek reports (Wagner, InformationWeek, 12/10).

Obama's open government directive aims to promote government accountability and transparency by encouraging public agencies to open their data and operations to the public. The plan calls for agencies to adopt open government principles and meet certain benchmarks during the coming months (Mosquera, Government Health IT, 12/9).

Research Data Streaming

One of HHS' open government projects will leverage the agency's National Assets for High-Tech Economic Growth program to stream biomedical research information.

The project will provide real-time access to:

Licensing opportunities for NIH and FDA technologies; and
NIH's Cooperative Research and Development Agreement.

Parts of the departments of Agriculture and Commerce also will provide data for the project.

CDC's IdeaLab

HHS also is preparing to launch an IdeaLab project to help CDC employees collaborate and share insights online.

The project will provide a forum for CDC workers to comment, offer suggestions, post ideas, request help and share experiences. Officials said the project will maintain transparency by barring individuals from posting anonymously.

YouTube for H1N1 Awareness

In addition, HHS already launched a YouTube contest inviting the public to submit videos encouraging teenagers and young adults to protect themselves against H1N1 influenza, also known as swine flu.
The agency received more than 250 video submissions and selected 10 finalists.

A public vote selected the winning video, which aired on national television. Runner-up videos also appeared on national media outlets and are available online (InformationWeek, 12/10).

Earlier Open Government Initiatives in Health IT

Several earlier federal health IT projects received a mention in a new progress report on the open government initiative.

When identifying examples of effective government transparency, the report pointed to:

The Health IT Standards Committee's online public comment forum;
HHS' "Code-a-Thon" to bolster the open-source development of the Nationwide Health Information Network's eConnect platform; and
The Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT's health IT blog (Government Health IT, 12/9).