America’s Health Rankings® has been a trusted source of health data for over 35 years, with a proven track record of providing accurate, reliable information as the longest-running state-by-state analysis of our nation’s health. By capturing expansive data with a range of demographics across more than 80 publicly available data sources, we seek to equip leaders with the data they need to drive progress in public health.
As a trusted data leader, America’s Health Rankings released a new tool to directly connect public health professionals, community leaders, advocates, policymakers, journalists and others with the reliable data they need to continue identifying gaps and driving solutions. Our new Application Programming Interface (API) facilitates seamless integration of data from the America’s Health Rankings platform into their work via custom analyses and data visualizations that are updated in real-time.
As our understanding of public health has evolved over the past three decades, so too have the data captured on the America’s Health Rankings platform. Today there are over 280 measures that demonstrate the complex interplay of factors that influence health. Analysis of these measures is grounded in the World Health Organization’s definition of health recognizing that health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being. The America’s Health Rankings model underpins that health outcome measures, like mortality and disease burden, are rooted in a broader context and influenced by social and economic factors, housing, education and access to clinical care.
The technology and methods we use to measure these data have also changed. The creation of the API is a part of America’s Health Rankings commitment to finding innovative ways to keep trustworthy, comprehensive data at the center of decision making and meet the demands of a changing public health landscape.
"As a former State Health Officer, I know firsthand how America’s Health Rankings can help a state health officer tell a comprehensive data-driven story to legislators. State health officers often have an abundance of data that sits in silos. America’s Health Rankings makes data accessible and digestible to contextualize measures of health in a state and provide legislators with the tools to advocate for solutions that improve health outcomes." — Mylynn Tufte, Population Health Leader, Optum and Former State Health Officer, North Dakota Department of Health
Through the API, America’s Health Rankings data can now empower public health practitioners with on-demand access to the latest data and analysis about specific health measures, subpopulations, states, regions and more. The API can be easily integrated into existing data projects and research to:
- Create custom analysis, comparisons and trends.
- Power data visualizations.
- Access data for specific health measures by state and subpopulations to help benchmark health performance.
- Understand long term trends and compare data through point in time analysis.
“State health officers are always driving towards solutions. To be action-oriented, they need access to comprehensive benchmarking data to understand how the health of their state compares to similar states, helping them learn from other state’s successes to develop programs and policies that make a positive impact. The data provided through America’s Health Rankings is foundational to implementing that change.” — John Wiesman, Professor of the Practice and Associate Dean for Practice Director, Executive Doctoral Program in Health Leadership UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Leaders in public health have already begun to recognize the API as a valuable tool to advance health. The data available through the API has also been highlighted by former state health officials to bring together relevant isolated data and lay the foundation for successful public health interventions — as well as to monitor the progress of those interventions.
As a novel tool to help public health leaders take advantage of the full breadth of America’s Health Rankings data resources, the API presents a new opportunity to fulfill our mission and invite others to join us in building healthier communities and inspiring solutions that enable people to live healthier lives.
To explore the API and access the full scope of America’s Health Rankings data, visit: https://developers.americashealthrankings.org/