Open data informatics strategies

The open data movement is accelerating public sector transparency and sparking innovation.  Chicago’s open data movement has translated to increased access to governmental data while also enabling the development of new applications, analyses, and collaboration on strategic plans.

Description

Chicago’s Open Data Portal contains approximately 48 public health datasets varying in size, scope, and purpose.  Each provides a glimpse into the health department’s operations, further illustrating public health activities and performance, in some instances close to real time.  Publishing data has reduced the Chicago Department of Public Health’s Freedom of Information requests dramatically (from a peak of 1796 in 2012 to 29 in 2014).

The publishing of this data has led to the development of web-based and mobile applications including the Chicago Health Atlas, Flu Shot Finder, Back to School Immunizations, Foodborne Chicago, and the Condom Finder.  Each of these has been built not by the health department, but through existing and new partnerships. 

Posting the data in real time has also expanded the availability for external collaboration in developing complicated analyses, such as that provided through our predictive models for foodborne inspections. 

Lessons Learned

Open data movements require governance, procedures, executive support, and technical statistical support, since some public health program staff lack data analysis skill.

Recommendations

Prioritize the release of data based upon current reporting burden (e.g. regularly requested FOIA documents), then target datasets for release that would have greatest value being placed into the public domain.