{"id":501012,"date":"2010-04-01T15:00:13","date_gmt":"2010-04-01T19:00:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.epa.gov\/blog\/?p=2174"},"modified":"2010-04-01T15:00:13","modified_gmt":"2010-04-01T19:00:13","slug":"hero-saves-the-%e2%80%9cdataholic%e2%80%9d-%e2%80%93-on-demand-data","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/501012","title":{"rendered":"HERO saves the \u201cdataholic\u201d \u2013 On-demand data!"},"content":{"rendered":"

It was nearly three years ago when I met with scientists in EPA\u2019s Office of Research and Development <\/a>about \u201cmodernizing\u201d their processes for producing science assessment documents. I remember that first meeting well — the table was piled high with huge documents with hundreds of word-processing tables representing data from published scientific journal articles, and many file cabinets full of associated paper reprints — and asked, \u201chow do we make this into a database?\u201d<\/p>\n

My name is Ellen, and I am a \u201cdataholic.\u201d Although admittedly a dataholic, it was clear to even \u201cnon-dataholics\u201d that this was a project ripe for an overhaul. With last week\u2019s launch of the Health and Environmental Research Online (HERO) database<\/a>,\u00a0 scientists have an efficient way to identify the science available to produce these documents.<\/p>\n

Modernizing the science assessment process had another bonus \u2013 it enabled easy access to the science used to inform EPA\u2019s decision-making in a way not possible when the research was tucked in file drawers and buried in reams of tables. We threw in another bonus — thanks to the hyperlink model of the World Wide Web.<\/p>\n

It took some adjustment to get used to those blue links throughout the documents. This paradigm shift highlights a major effort on the part of EPA to give open access to the data used. While reading an assessment, these direct links allow the reader immediate access to bibliographic information and summaries of the science used in each assessment. (Go to http:\/\/www.epa.gov\/iris\/subst\/0286.htm<\/a> to see an example.) Teams of expert scientists use expanded versions of this same information to distill the knowledge into a finished assessment. It\u2019s like having a thousand documents standing right behind the assessments, with on-demand viewing capabilities, ready to be understood by other scientists and the public.<\/p>\n

The project that was conceived to convert a paper process to a digital one has found a natural fit with the Administration\u2019s initiative<\/a> for Open Government. HERO is designed to put into practice this commitment to transparency by sharing the research, methodologies and guidelines that inform the risk assessment <\/a> process. EPA uses risk assessments to characterize the nature and magnitude of health risks to humans and the ecosystem from pollutants and chemicals in the environment.<\/p>\n

\u201cGiving the public easy access to the same information EPA uses will help open the lines of communication, increase knowledge and understanding, and open the doors of EPA,\u201d said EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson when HERO was announced<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This is an exciting time to be a \u201cdataholic\u201d at the EPA.<\/p>\n

About the author: Ellen Lorang is project lead for HERO (http:\/\/epa.gov\/hero) in EPA\u2019s National Center for Environmental Assessment. This blog is part of an ongoing series about the EPA\u2019s efforts toward the Open Government Directive that lays out the Obama Administration\u2019s commitment to Open Government and the principles of transparency, participation and collaboration.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It was nearly three years ago when I met with scientists in EPA\u2019s Office of Research and Development about \u201cmodernizing\u201d their processes for producing science assessment documents. I remember that first meeting well — the table was piled high with huge documents with hundreds of word-processing tables representing data from published scientific journal articles, and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6469,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-501012","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/501012","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6469"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=501012"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/501012\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=501012"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=501012"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=501012"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}