Health and wellness datasets at datos.gob.es and other examples of initiatives

Fecha de la noticia: 12-08-2021

Salud y bienestar: conjuntos de datos destacados en datos.gob.es y otros ejemplos de iniciativas

If there is a field in which data are of great importance, it is in health. Through indicators obtained from various diagnostic tests and our history, doctors can know what is happening in our body, decide what treatment we should take and estimate how we are going to evolve. But for their estimates to be correct, external data have also been necessary, which have contributed to the acquisition of greater knowledge about different ailments.

When we talk about open data in health we refer to both medical data and other related data that can also have an impact on the health of patients and the services provided. Some examples are:

  • Data from medical studies and research. The sharing of clinical and research data has several benefits: it enhances the reproducibility of trials, their verification and reliability, while creating opportunities for new discoveries, among other advantages. In this sense, Directive (EU) 2019/1024, relating to open data and the reuse of public sector information, obliges Member States to adopt open access policies for publicly funded research data. In addition, there are numerous initiatives in the world that promote the opening of this type of data such as the Research Data Alliance. In our country we find proposals such as Datasea, wave Maredata network, which has a guide to guide the opening of these data.
  • Well-being related data. The environment, the diet we eat, the sleep pattern, the balance between work and private life, the stress or the physical exercise we do are also patterns closely linked to our state of health, since they can affect our immune system or even our mental health. Many times this type of data is obtained through surveys and statistics that link health and well-being. In Spain, the INE, for example, carries out the five-year National Health Survey, where information is asked about perceived morbidity and use of health services, but also about lifestyle habits and preventive activities. These data are provided in the open so that they can be reused in various studies.
  • Data related to health services and management, such as the location of medical centers or pharmacies, schedules or complaints received in hospitals. All of them can be very useful for patients, but also for public bodies when making decisions that improve the effectiveness and efficiency of the health service. These data are often provided by autonomous entities, responsible for their management.
  • Patient records. Patient data is also a great source of knowledge, which can be extrapolated to other cases. During the COVID pandemic we have seen how it was necessary to have as much information as possible about the evolution of the disease, since doctors and epidemiologists faced an unknown and documented ailment. The Spanish Society of Internal Medicine (SEMI) has developed a Registration on-line with epidemiological, clinical, treatment, laboratory and radiographic parameters. Another initiative of interest is HealthData 29, a platform that allows healthcare providers and other entities to safely make their open data sets available to the community for research purposes, and which currently has data from LaLiga, Sanitas and HM hospitals. Both are data-sharing initiatives where you need to register or write to request the information.

It should be noted that the anonymization of data - always necessary when talking about open data - is essential to respect patient privacy and sometimes makes opening this type of information difficult.

More than 16,000 health and wellness data at datos.gob.es

In datos.gob.es there is 9,530 data sets in the health category and 7,388 in society and well-being. While the first category includes data directly related to health, such as medical services, health surveys or death data, the second includes data related to active aging, marginalization, personal autonomy, dependency or disability, among other categories more related to society. These categories respond to what is indicated in the Technical Standard for Interoperability for the Reuse of Information Resources.

The main publishers of this type of data are the Canary Institute of statistics, the Statistics National Institute and the Sociological Research Center.

From these data sets, below, we collect the most important ones together with the format in which you can consult them:

1.Statewide

2.At the CC.AA. level

3.Locally

 

This data can be reused in research and to create services and products related to health, such as those collected in this article.

Do you know of any initiative to open health data? You can share it with us in the comments or send us an email to contacto@datos.gob.es. We will be delighted to read you

 
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