Q&A: HHS CDO Builds Trust Through Data Transparency

The Department of Health and Human Services accelerated its push toward radical transparency throughout 2025, culminating in the release of its Living Open Data Plan in July 2025 to guide improvements in data governance, public accessibility and agency-wide decision-making. GovCIO Media & Research spoke with HHS Chief Data Officer Kristen Honey earlier this year about how the department is advancing an “open by default” mindset when it comes to data management.

How will you ensure the Living Open Data Plan remains dynamic rather than static?

Honey: Technology moves fast, so we wanted a format that could evolve with it. Rather than publishing a static PDF that sits on a website, we broke every chapter and appendix into modular GitHub components. The public can comment on them in real time, offer suggestions and signal where they see gaps or opportunities.

That public input becomes a demand signal to guide updates. We hope to refresh the plan at least a couple of times a year — and right now we’re moving even faster. When we launched the plan in July, the deputy secretary committed to releasing an updated version within four months. Working openly, taking real-time feedback and iterating quickly are core to the model.

What was your process for developing the modular design?

Honey: During COVID, we saw how effective “living evidence guidelines” were, especially in places like Australia. Instead of waiting years for updates, experts revised clinical guidelines monthly as new science emerged. That modular, iterative model worked incredibly well during a fast-moving emergency.

HHS has a strong open data community. Healthdata.gov sees nearly a million visits a month, with many longtime super users. We realized we could replicate that model here by tapping into the expertise of users inside and outside government. Open data fuels research, business models, student projects — it sparks innovation. So why not build a model that continuously incorporates that insight?

How does HHS want public and private partners to engage differently under this plan?

Honey: We’re exploring ways to make open data engagement radically transparent. In the past, interagency open data groups sometimes held meetings that were open for the public to observe, not participate, but to see who the leaders were and how decisions were made. We want to bring more of that spirit back.

Partnerships exist on a spectrum. On one end, there are lightweight collaborations — like the Census Bureau’s Opportunity Project tech sprints — where government provides data and stewardship, but the collaboration is informal. On the other end, there are formal public-private partnerships, like HHS’s KidneyX Innovation Accelerator. We expect to pursue more of both.

Marrying government’s authoritative role with the speed and experimentation of industry allows us to move faster. Industry users are often the ones pushing standards and applying data at the cutting edge. When we work together, we get the best of both worlds.

What are your plans to bolster user experience for HealthData.gov?

Honey: We’re a very small team — fewer than six people — so we rely heavily on human-centered design and AI-enabled routing to make the user experience seamless.

The public shouldn’t need to know which HHS division owns which dataset. We want HealthData.gov to be a one-stop shop. When users reach out, we act like a concierge service: we help them find what they need, and on the backend, AI helps route inquiries to the right experts across the department.

The better the tech gets, the more high-touch we want to be. Automation should free us to respond faster and more personally.

How does “open by default” shift the culture at HHS?

Honey: At its core, “open by default” is a power shift. Traditional government structures rely on top-down, hierarchical information flows where offices act as gatekeepers. Open data flips that — information moves bi-directionally, silos break down and decision-making power moves closer to the front lines.

Other agencies have gone through similar transitions. The Pentagon, for example, had to radically rethink information flows during the shift away from 20th-century approaches to warfare. HHS is at a similar inflection point. By embracing transparency, we enable complex-systems thinking and more holistic understanding of health impacts across society.

Success, in my role, means empowering experts across the department — not centralizing power at headquarters.

CMS’s open-source work is a notable example of interagency collaboration. How does HHS plan to scale similar efforts?

Honey: CMS’s Open Source Program Office (OSPO) is a great model. Their team built tools to implement the SHARE IT Act within CMS, but they also designed them from day one to benefit all of HHS and even other federal agencies.

My office partners closely with OSPO. We’ve piloted using their open source tools for open data, and early results are promising. Different divisions have different needs and mission spaces. Our role is to listen, provide optionality and act as the connective tissue that brings together metadata, standards and shared solutions.

Radical transparency has strong top-cover support across HHS, which helps every division move forward with confidence.

What do the first metadata standards establish, and how will they evolve?

Honey: Metadata standards will be a long-term effort, and they must involve not just federal leaders but also industry, academia and expert data users. We want a governance model that brings in these external voices without relying on federal advisory committees — something more agile and collaborative. Other agencies have done versions of this before, so we know it’s possible.

For November, we’ll focus on the modules where public feedback is highest. We also expect to release version 2.0 of both the Living Open Data Plan and the HHS Data Inventory, which catalogs public and nonpublic assets across the department.

Once those are out, we hope to set a regular cadence — likely at least twice a year — for updating the living plan. Governance, iterations and expanding the metadata catalog will be major priorities moving into 2026.