David Y. Ige

HONOLULU – The Hawaii State Department of Health (DOH) is launching a new resource for residents and others seeking information on public health data about their communities in Hawaii. The department’s Hawaii Health Data Warehouse (HHDW) has introduced a new easy-to-use interactive query/reporting tool—the Indicator-Based Information System, or IBIS—that provides users more control to find and access the data they want. An online step-by-step guide walks the user through the user-friendly query process.

“The new HHDW platform puts Hawaii’s health data at the public’s fingertips,” said Health Director Virginia Pressler. “Giving Hawaii residents easy access to this information, including the ability to track our progress towards meeting state and national health goals and objectives, is an important priority for the Department of Health.” Hawaii joins nine other states and two federal agencies that already use the IBIS system for public health data.

HHDW has served as an online clearinghouse for state health data since its establishment in 2004, providing access to hundreds of statistics about the health of Hawaii’s people from five public health survey datasets including data related to births, deaths and marriages in the state. Based on feedback from current  users, the new site now gives users the ability to pinpoint the data they need and select how they would like it displayed. Even with no prior data experience, the IBIS system makes it easy to find data and create custom reports. The default report includes a chart, data table, and a map, and users have the ability to modify reports by applying filters or changing how the results are displayed.

Besides the addition of IBIS, HHDW’s “Healthy People 2020 Tracker” tracks Hawaii’s progress towards national Healthy People 2020 targets. Objectives listed in Hawaii state health plans are also measured; for example, the “Physical Activity and Nutrition (PAN) Tracker” displays the state’s progress towards achieving the objectives of the Hawaii Physical Activity and Nutrition Plan. HHDW also houses  more than 600 pre-loaded standardized health indicator reports on a variety of topics that are searchable by category, by data source, and by Healthy People 2020 objective.

“Providing multiple ways to access and share data increases the likelihood that the public will use the information,” said Ranjani Starr, epidemiologist for the Department of Health Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion Division. “Hawaii students, researchers, concerned citizens, and policy makers now have a variety of tools available to them to generate data for their diverse needs.” From October 2014 to September 2015, HHDW had 8,979 unique visitors and 61,986 page views.

For more information about HHDW, the IBIS system, or Hawaii Health Matters, please visit www.HHDW.org.

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