Data Description Schema

A consistent ecosystemic approach for how data is described across WHO's data products and processes.

The World Health Organization's new Data Description Schema provides the building blocks to harmonize and unify the diverse data handled by WHO while continuing to empower the use of bespoke tools and systems tailored to the data workflow at hand.

By consistently describing our data in the same way, the Data Description Schema generates powerful cross-platform, tool-agnostic opportunities for the whole data journey; from collection to analysis and dissemination; expressed in column titles, metadata, API queries, file-names and more.

The definitions and examples below, serve to demonstrate the consistency of meaning and structure that provide the foundation for powerful and dynamic applications of data.

Interface showing country focal points and the local timezone information in Albania.

Objective

The creation of a common data description schema ensures a greater degree of schematic data integrity, increasing interoperability across programmatic areas of work and in WHO's interface with Member States, partners and public consumers of data. Expressed within data products, users and consumers of data will, for the first time, have a common and consistent language through which to understand and leverage data.

Through the logical and machine-readable format of the Data Description Schema, the hope is to increase the accessibility, usage and actionability of data. To that end, the semantic encoding, common syntactic structure and consistent query syntax provide clear information for human users and codeable metadata for systems and machines. This will directly address feedback from country stakeholders and pain points received through external research and interviews with users in 2021 and 2022.

 

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