FDA Launches openFDA

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has launched openFDA, an initiative which is particularly designed to give free access to health datasets for researchers, developers and to the public. This is a huge dataset which comprises more than 3 million reports submitted to the FDA since 2004.

According to Taha Kass-Hout , Chief Health Informatics Officer of FDA, openFDA makes access to FDA dataset and information much easier for companies, and individuals in private and public sectors which otherwise cannot be easily accessed. Before the launching of openFDA, the only way companies in the industry get access to FDA dataset is through sending hundreds of Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests. Moreover, downloading big files, sometimes in variety of formats, was slow and also arriving at FDA database by sailing through various web links was a tedious and labor intensive process for companies and individual researchers. Thanks to openFDA, now all the hustles are removed and one stop free access to FDA’s dataset is guaranteed. OpenFDA contains dataset in the public domain with a CC0 Public Domain Dedication.

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