ProPublica, a non-profit, independent investigative journalism organization that focuses on public interest, has introduced the Vital Signs API, the API that powers the new Vital Signs Web app. The Vital Signs Web app provides information for more than 1.3 million U.S. healthcare providers. Information that can be found using the app includes how much providers were paid for their services, payments providers received from drug and device companies, and the types of drugs prescribed by healthcare providers. The Vital Signs API provides access to the same healthcare provider information available from the Vital Signs app.
ProPublica focuses on investigative journalism reporting on issues and events that have the potential to significantly impact the public. ProPublica began publishing in June 2008, and the organization has collected a great deal of data since its launch. The data behind the ProPublica's reporting can be downloaded or purchased, and some data is also available via APIs. The new Vital Signs API is a premium API; however, there are several free ProPublica APIs available such as the Campaign Finance API, ProPublica Congress API, and Nonprofit Explorer API.
The Campaign Finance API provides information from the Federal Election Commission about electronic filings. The ProPublica Congress API provides information about Congress such as roll-call vote data, member data, and bill data. The Nonprofit Explorer API provides information from the IRS on 1.6 million non-profit organizations.
The Vital Signs API provides healthcare provider data that can be useful for hospitals, physician offices, health insurance companies, and other healthcare industry organizations. Developers of consumer review sites and physician locator sites can use the API to incorporate Vital Sign data into their websites. The API is currently in a closed beta program and a limited number of participants will be added this Spring. Developers interested in using the Vital Signs API can sign up to be added to the beta waiting list.
For more information about the ProPublica Vital Signs App and API, visit the official website.
Every day, the ProgrammableWeb team is busy, updating its three primary directories for APIs, clients (language-specific libraries or SDKs for consuming or providing APIs), and source code samples. If you have new APIs, clients, or source code examples to add to ProgrammableWeb’s directories, we offer forms (APIs, Clients, Source Code) for submitting them to our API research team. If there’s a listing in one of our directories that you’d like to claim as the owner, please contact us at editor@programmableweb.com.
Eight APIs have been added to the ProgrammableWeb directory in categories including Messaging, Healthcare, and Natural Language Processing. Highlights today include an API for analytics regarding wearable health devices and hardware. Here's a rundown of the latest additions.
APIs
The SimpleSMSAPI lets developers to integrate text messaging into their applications without buying numbers, setting up global rules, or dealing with varying prices in different countries. The API sends the SMS message from a number in close proximity to the recipient to ensure a quick delivery. The SimpleSMS API is listed under the Messaging category. See ProgrammableWeb's complete list of Messaging APIs.
The World Air Quality Index project is a project started in 2007 with the mission to promote air pollution awareness and provide a unified air quality information for places around the world. The project provides air quality information in several languages from over 9000 data stations in 600 major cities in more than 70 countries. The World Air Quality Index REST API allows developers to access and integrate the functionality of the index with other applications and websites. Some example API methods include geo-based queries, retrieving air quality data for cities and regions, and retrieving current weather conditions. The World Air Quality Index API is listed under the Environment category. See ProgrammableWeb's complete list of Environment APIs.
Add real-time air quality and pollution data for thousands of locations via this API Image Credit: World Air Quality
Meditrics is a provider of analytical software solutions for health management. The Medtrics Analytics As Service (MaaS) API allows developers to integrate real-time data transmission capabilities in health monitoring applications. It is designed to process and stream real-time analytical data for a variety of health parameters including blood pressure, ECG, and PPG, among others. The API is well suited for deployment as an IoT platform in healthcare wearable devices and hardware. The API is listed under the Medical category. See ProgrammableWeb's complete list of Medical APIs.
Dandelion API provides Semantic Text Analytics as a service that includes text, actionable data and more. The Dandelion Text Similarity API is a semantic sentence similarity API optimized on short sentences. It allows users to compare two sentences and get a score of their semantic similarity. The Dandelion Language Detection Similarity API is a simple language identification API that is useful when dealing with texts and currently supports 96 languages. It allows users to define how the language to be recognized in text. These APIs are listed under the Natural Language Processing category. See ProgrammableWeb's complete list of Natural Language Processing APIs.
The Art Beat network provides calendars and reviews for Art events in New York and Tokyo. Art Beat provides the New York Art Beat API and the Tokyo Art Beat API, which provide news on art and design events, exhibition listings, show reviews, and photo reports for their prospective cities. These XML APIs let developers access NY and Tokyo art and design event names, descriptions and prices, and is useful for artist, audience, gallery and art museum applications. Both APIs are listed under the Art category. See ProgrammableWeb's complete list of Art APIs.
Developers can provide app users with information about Art in Tokyo via the Tokyo Art Beat API Image Credit: Tokyo Art Beat
Pypestream is a smart messaging platform focused on customer engagement and feedback. The Pypestream REST API allows developers to access and integrate the functionalities of Pypestream with other applications. API and documentation access comes with account service. The Pypestream API is listed under the Customer Service category. See ProgrammableWeb's complete list of Customer Service APIs.
