HHS launches health data comparison tool

A new online tool will allow public searches of disparate federal healthcare data sets in one place.

HHS launched the Health System Measurement Project on Tuesday to allow simplified tracking of healthcare trends in access to care, cost and affordability, disease prevention and health information technology, according to a news release.

"Ensuring all Americans have access to these data is an important way to make our healthcare system more open and transparent," HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said in the release.

The tool is designed to let users quickly access data on various population health metrics from multiple federal sources, compare trends across measures and compare national trends with those at the state and regional level. Data is drawn "from existing HHS and other federal surveys," including those conducted by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, according to the project's website. The measures were selected to align with existing HHS strategic planning and performance measurement efforts.

According to the site, "one important purpose of the project is to track the consequences of implementation of" the 2010 federal healthcare overhaul on the country's healthcare system. However, an initial search of the site indicated that much of the comparison data is available only up until 2009 or 2010.