SEATTLE — The University of Washington’s Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation unveiled the first-ever public database focused on global health today. The resource, called the Global Health Data Exchange (GHDx), is meant to serve as a one-stop shop for sharing information — including surveys, censuses and hospital data — relating to world health.

The GHDx catalog currently includes around 1,000 global health, public health, and demographic datasets that can be downloaded as spreadsheets, complete with high quality meta-data such as information sources and providers. In the future, however, the IHME also plans to add data visualization and other tools.

One of the first major contributors to the GHDx is the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Previously, much of the CDC’s data had been available only upon request, CDC demographer Paul Stupp told meeting attendees earlier today here at the Global Health Metrics & Evaluation conference. But now, researchers can access a wealth of the agency’s maternal and child health data through the free, online portal.

According to Peter Speyer, IHME director of data development, the GHDx has been in the works ever since the institute launched in 2007, and is funded through the core grants — $105 million from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and $20 million from Washington state — that launched the institute.