By Marissa Jaross, JVA Consulting

The Center for Improving Value in Health Care, or CIVHC, hosted the first Colorado Health Day in September of 2014. The event brought together health professionals from every segment of the field, from providers to payers to researchers. Throughout the day, presenters and panels spoke about trends in health data, available resources, and innovation in the field. Outlined below are some of the key, free resources that were presented during Colorado Health Data Day. We think they are all terrific resources to help you in your next community assessment and/or grant proposal.

• Colorado Information Marketplace: https://data.colorado.gov/

The Colorado Information Marketplace is a site run by the State of Colorado that combines data from all agencies in one database. The site includes health, housing, and education data in one place. However, it is not a comprehensive list of all data available in all individual agencies.

• US Open Data: https://www.data.gov/

The US government publishes datasets for public consumption on education, health, jobs, and many other topics of interest.

• Colorado Health Institute Data Repository: http://www.coloradohealthinstitute.org/data-repository/county

The Colorado Health Institute carries out a yearly survey called the Colorado Health Access Survey (CHAS). While the CHAS can be accessed for raw data, the Colorado Health Institute also does a variety of analyses and reports that are well presented and accessible. The Excel files that are downloadable from CHAS are also clear and present information that is relevant to JVA’s work.

• Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE): http://www.chd.dphe.state.co.us/

The CDPHE site has in depth datasets and analysis available. The site also has a great map with health indicators broken out by county that is far more specific and easier to navigate than the US Census Bureau American Community Survey.

• Colorado’s All Payer Claims Database: https://www.comedprice.org/

All Payer Claims Databases (APCD) exist throughout the country and are ways to quantify and analyze health care services. As of now, the APCD is mainly used as a tool for pricing services. There is, however, a map function that shows statewide and countywide statistics regarding healthcare usage.