In 2012, The Innovation in Data Dissemination Award was presented to the Department of Health and Human Services Health Data Initiative (HDI) for encouraging the use of health data in innovative applications to raise awareness of health and health system performance and spark community action to improve health.
NAHDO applauds the HDI efforts by developing major resources such as HealthData.gov that hosts more than 400 datasets, tools and apps and the easily downloadable Health Indicators Warehouse (http://healthindicators.gov/) with more than 1170 health indicators on quality, cost and utilization of health care services. The HDI convenes health data stakeholders at its National Health Datapalooza and at local and regional events such as code-a-thons, meet-ups and challenge competitions, bringing together health data experts, developers, system design engineers, researchers and students. To amplify these efforts, the Health Data Affiliates program was launched in 2012 to support local efforts to promote innovative applications in data.