The Health Data Revolution Enters An Awkward Adolescence

The Open Food and Drug Administration's database unveiled at the conference, for one, is intended to make it easier for the public to search more than 3 million reports on adverse reactions to prescription drugs.

Up until now, the information was available by reading quarterly reports, by filing a Freedom of Information Act request or by combing through the raw data. Any improvement would be a help for those of us not adept with relational databases.

That kind of data is "lazy data," Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius told the Datapaloozers; data that is locked away or difficult to access. "HHS is converting lazy data and making it active data," Sec Sebelius said.

Health apps have failed to reach the level of popularity and financial success that we've seen with apps for weather and geolocation, says Josh Rosenthal, chief scientific officer of RowdMap, a Web-based business management platform. He told participants in an entrepreneur's boot camp session. "Put it all together and you get a big bucket of fail."