This post was originally published on the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services blog.
Kristen Honey is the Chief Data Scientist and Executive Director of InnovationX at the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health (OASH), Kathleen Carroll is a U.S. Digital Corps Fellow at OASH, and Trey Gordner is a U.S. Digital Corps Fellow at the Office of the Chief Data Officer (OCDO) at HHS.
Summary: 2023 Health Datapalooza accelerates momentum for HHS CancerX, Startup Days & the launch of Health Equity DataJam to transform HHS open data into tools & action.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) continues to drive open data and galvanize digital innovation with its substantial participation and thought leadership in the 2023 Health Datapalooza. The Health Datapalooza is an eclectic conference of health technology enthusiasts, this year in Arlington, VA on February 23-24, 2023. Each year, the Health Datapalooza galvanizes a diverse community of unusual allies who are transforming data into insights and action to improve health care delivery. It attracts data scientists, entrepreneurs, policy wonks, medical practitioners, patients, advocates, and hopefully you—all welcome!
HHS participation at the Health Datapalooza include keynotes by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Commissioner, Robert Califf, M.D., MACC; National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC), Micky Tripathi, Ph.D., M.P.P., and Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H) Director, Renee Wegrzyn, Ph.D The 2023 Health Datapalooza conference will inspire action towards a more equitable and efficient healthcare system, a central goal of the HHS Strategic Plan. The discussions and debates at the conference will aim to identify specific areas where data can be used to improve healthcare outcomes and drive change.
Additional HHS talks and announcements will come from the HHS Office of the Chief Data Officer, Office of the Chief Artificial Intelligence Officer, and the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health (OASH) InnovationX. These crosscutting teams will share HHS updates on partnerships, emerging collaborations, and new opportunities for public engagement:
- CancerX, announced by the White House as part of the Cancer Moonshot.
- PandemicX, which incubated 15 teams of entrepreneurs with focus on health equity.
- 2023 Health Equity DataJam, launched today at the Health Datapalooza.
- 2023 Federal Health Innovation Days, which HHS will reignite to open government doors to startups and entrepreneurs in technology hubs across the country in 2023, to demystify the bureaucracy, processes, and healthcare related priorities of the Federal government.
Three sessions at the 2023 Health Datapalooza will showcase the HHS efforts, including the HHS Data Strategy, InnovationX, and CancerX. Sessions will feature important federal programs, such as the U.S. Digital Corps Fellows, a group of early-career technologists who represent the diversity of our country and who play an important role in delivering secure, effective, and equitable government services to the public. In a session titled Transforming Data to Insights to Action with HHS and U.S. Digital Corps Designers, fellows and colleagues will discuss infection-associated chronic illnesses such as Lyme disease and Long COVID and the cutting-edge methods used to innovate solutions.
The comprehensive 2023 Health Datapalooza Agenda spans all aspects of data, policy, and action. Federal Chief Data Officers will come together in a session titled HHS Data Strategy in Action, focusing on emerging data developments across agencies. In another HHS-led session, Thinking Outside of the “Bubble,” Benefits of Meeting Innovators Where They Are, leaders will discuss a new, government-wide efforts to recruit innovators of all types to help the federal agencies tackle some of healthcare’s biggest challenges. The Health Datapalooza Pitch Tent will also feature sessions on CancerX, KidneyX and LymeX, which are HHS public-private partnerships for exponential change. The 2023 Health Equity DataJam on HealthData.gov is free and open to everyone. The DataJam is a public call-to-action. How can we transform HHS data into actionable insights and digital tools to help bridge disparities of health, including those exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, Long COVID, and infection-associated chronic illnesses to ensure equitable access and wellness for all?
U.S. Digital Corps Fellows at HHS proved instrumental to delivering this year’s Health Datapalooza, especially the 2023 Health Equity DataJam, which launches at today’s event as a two-month-long technology sprint through the end of April. A professional association for health services and policy researchers, AcademyHealth , will run the DataJam using HHS open data. Thanks to the U.S. Digital Corps Fellows, HealthData.gov includes DataJam challenge prompts, priority themes, open datasets, and curated resources for solvers. Read more about how these fellows are transforming HHS open data into digital tools, visualizations, insights, and innovation for real-world impact on the accompanying HHS blog, U.S. Digital Corps Supercharge HHS Open Data with the 2023 Health Equity DataJam and Health Datapalooza.
Open data and digital innovation have matured significantly since the early days of the Health Datapalooza, first held in 2010 with a small group of researchers, software engineers and entrepreneurs challenged to do more with government health data. Over the years, Health Datapalooza has become the gathering place for people and organizations creating knowledge from data and pioneering innovations that drive health policy and practice and generate market value. Join us!
The 2023 Health Datapalooza will be held Feb. 23-24, 2023, in Arlington, Virginia. More information can be found here.
