Overview

The ProPublica Vital Signs API provides structured access to the key data points behind ProPublica’s health care reporting, and it is intended for use by consumer-facing and B2B app developers looking to access quantitative and qualitative data about medical providers.

Background

ProPublica has produced a growing library of health-care related data projects. Our projects inspect particular issues within the healthcare system, from patterns in treatment and prescribing practices to surgical complication rates to the influence of pharmaceutical companies on providers. Typically, we tackle these issues at the system scale and track our impact through changes in legislation, regulatory oversight, provider practices and institutional policies.

However, most patients experience these issues in a more personal way: in their relationships with the doctors, nurses, and other providers that care for them. ProPublica’s reporting can also be applied in this setting to improve patient awareness, spark important discussions in clinical settings, and influence patient choices around care.

Similarly, insurance networks, hospitals and other institutions are looking for new ways to evaluate and select providers that they work with. ProPublica’s data can be used to provide benchmarks for providers around issues that affect performance (with attention to both quality and cost of care).

The ProPublica Vital Signs API brings together all of the insights from our diverse projects to help patients, providers, and health care professionals put our reporting to work inside the systems, tools, and applications that inform their choices.