Health Data Liberator Award Goes to Dr. Nirav Shah NYSDOH

Dr. Shah and his Health Data Liberator Award.

Congratulations to Dr. Nirav Shah and the NYS Department of Health for winning the first ever Health Data Liberator Award. The award was given to Dr. Shah at the federal Health Datapalooza IV for the “outstanding accomplishments of the New York State Department of Health.” From the press release:

The State of New York’s pioneering efforts to make health data publicly available and to facilitate the data’s use in apps, tools, and services is bringing the data to life in meaningful and innovative ways.

As the commissioner of the New York State Health Department, Dr. Nirav Shah oversees an agency with a $50 billion budget. He is an epidemiologist by training and an acclaimed public health researcher, whose work has focused on driving improvements in data quality to support changes in health care. In March 2013, he led the launch of the nation’s first open data website devoted exclusively to health, called Health.Data.NY.gov. By making health data available, New York is providing opportunities for data users and developers to create valuable mashups of national and New York State health data, a model that other states have since followed.

Reinvent Albany wrote about Health.Data.NY.gov in March.  We are happy to see Dr. Shah, NYS DOH and the Cuomo administration recognized for this innovation and the state’s energetic Open NY  data liberation initiative.