Main points

• Open data initiatives show significant potential to improve health service delivery by improving transparency and accountability in the system and allowing health users to have more voice and a wider range of choice of provider where the system allows this.
• The main enabling factor for open health data to work well is the government’s willingness to make data more accessible, and to embrace and act on issues disclosed by the data.
• Feedback loops in open data projects are important in order to create virtuous circles of data collection, publication and use that can improve the data and its infrastructure over time.
• The capacity of traditional public service organisations to use data needs to be developed.
• The theories of change for open data projects need to have clear causal mechanisms and feasible objectives.
• Lastly, we need further exploration and research on how to ensure the sustainability of open data infrastructure, and on whether open data can improve actual health outcomes.