July 19, 2016 Department of Health Launches Online Data Tool

Baton Rouge, La., Jul 19, 2016 - Are you interested in learning more about the health of your community or a researcher looking for health data? A new site developed by the Department of Health can provide you with information like the number of uninsured Louisianans, the rates of those with chronic illnesses or obesity, environmental statistics and even which communities have access to healthy foods.

The Department of Health’s (LDH) Center for Population Health Informatics and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Tracking Network have partnered to create Health Data, a public data portal that provides longitudinal analyses of Louisiana health data. The site will be accessible to the general public, and will prove especially useful to researchers, scientists, educators, students, health officials and individuals seeking to learn more about the health issues affecting their community.

Dr. Rebekah Gee, secretary of the Department of Health, said the portal is fully interactive and allows users to access health, population, environmental and exposure data and visualizations in one place.

“Our goal was to create a site that makes it easy for researchers and anyone else who is interested in Louisiana’s health care data to find and analyze the information,” Dr. Gee said. “Those who go to the site can search for specific topics of interest and view tables, graphs and maps to explore datasets geographically and over time.”

Quick access to associated information and links is also provided. The data will be downloadable and continually curated to ensure the best and most current information is available. New data sources will be added as they are identified.

“We hope that, by allowing free and ready access to health data, residents will become more aware of the health issues facing Louisiana and community workers and health researchers will have the information they need to better understand and improve the health of Louisiana’s families and communities,” said Joseph Foxhood, director of the Center for Population Health Informatics.

Users can access the Health Data portal at http://healthdata.dhh.la.gov. All data are publicly available.

More information on available health data resources is available at ldh.louisiana.gov/cphi, where users can also request custom data or visualizations.

The Louisiana Department of Health strives to protect and promote health statewide and to ensure access to medical, preventive and rehabilitative services for all state residents. To learn more about LDH, visit www.ldh.la.gov. For up-to-date health information, news and emergency updates, follow LDH's Twitter account and Facebook.