Personal data, big data and open data have fuelled innumerable start-ups and are central to the business models of digital economy titans such as Google, Apple and Amazon. But the potential social impact of ‘data for good’ is perhaps less widely appreciated. The recent recasting of the EU’s Open Data Directive has focused attention on how public organisations hold, use and share the data they collect, and put an onus on proactive identification and publication of data holdings. The opening up of public sector data within the legal framework of the directive, can also play a significant role in delivering positive health and wellbeing outcomes.

Open data has many health and wellbeing applications. For example, deprivation indices have long been combined with local life expectancy, air quality and disease incidence rates to demonstrate the role of poverty and geography in poor health outcomes; and the designing of targeted policy and public health interventions to counter the same. For the individual, open data enables applications which show the level of pollution in the sea water or in the air, allowing for informed decisions around where and when to travel- particularly important for those with respiratory conditions.

The Covid-19 Pandemic demonstrated the potential social impact of open data, particularly regarding building trust and cohesion. Open data helped power Ireland’s national data dashboard: providing timely, reliable and accessible statistics on the current state of the outbreak for epidemiologists and daily public briefings alike. This relatively proactive, timely and upfront provision of information is credited with helping broad acceptance and cooperation with public health measures from the Irish public. According to the CEO of the Irish health service, the Irish Covid Tracker App ‘was the most successful launch of this app anywhere in the world’ while engagement with the Irish vaccination programme was similarly among the highest in Europe and beyond: clear evidence that open data can assist the making of ‘wise’, or evidence-based, decisions beneficial for individuals, businesses and society alike.

As it develops, the Hale & Hearty knowledge base gathers health and wellbeing open data from a number of sources: Central Statistics Office, Health Service Executive, Local Authorities and more, to build a catalogue, dashboard and map. Essentially providing the what, where and when of health and wellbeing open data in a number of contexts. So if an individual wants to know where a local bike hire spot is, when the air is relatively clean, or what the incidence of certain illnesses in a certain place is, they should come to Hale & Hearty to find all this information in an accessible and digestible format in one place.

For local authorities participating in the creation of this knowledge base there’s an emphasis on identifying and publishing relevant datasets in the first instance. Then structuring and presenting the data in a way which is as aligned as possible. Smart Dublin, an initiative of the 4 Dublin local authorities, helps coordinate and organise this activity. For example, if one Dublin local authority can publish a libraries dataset, we would look for the other 3 to publish too, and for all to as far as possible align in terms of the type of information provided (e.g. spatial coordinates, facilities present, etc) and the formats (e.g. CSV for tabular data, GeoJSON or KML for spatial data). This is to help make the experience for users of the knowledge base as intuitive, straightforward and seamless as possible. By powering business, promoting engagement and facilitating informed decisions, open data can deliver value on various levels. By helping realise this value, tools such as the Hale and Hearty knowledge base may help us all become a little more healthy, wealthy and wise. Stay tuned for updates on its development.