Medical Data API

Medical Data API Guide (openFDA + WHO GHO)

Overview

This skill covers two major open medical data APIs for academic research:

openFDA is the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's public API providing access to drug labeling (SPL), adverse event reports (FAERS), recalls, and NDC directory. The FAERS dataset contains over 722,000 reports for common drugs like aspirin, making it a primary pharmacovigilance resource.

WHO Global Health Observatory (GHO) is the WHO's OData v4 API serving over 2,000 health indicators across 194 member states -- life expectancy, mortality, disease burden, health system coverage, risk factors, and SDG targets. Returns structured JSON with numeric values, confidence intervals, and dimensional breakdowns by country, sex, and year.

Both APIs are free, require no authentication, and return JSON.

Authentication

openFDA: No authentication required. An optional API key (free, via https://open.fda.gov/apis/authentication/) increases rate limits from 240/min to 120,000/day. Register at https://open.fda.gov/apis/ to obtain a key, then append &api_key=YOUR_KEY to requests.

WHO GHO: No authentication required. No API key needed. All endpoints are publicly accessible with no registration.

Core Endpoints

openFDA: Drug Labels

Search FDA-approved drug labeling data (Structured Product Labeling). Returns boxed warnings, indications, dosage, contraindications, and adverse reactions text.

• URL: GET https://api.fda.gov/drug/label.json
• Parameters:

• Example:

curl "https://api.fda.gov/drug/label.json?search=aspirin&limit=1"

• Response: Returns meta.results.total (26,564 for "aspirin") and results array. Each result contains boxed_warning, indications_and_usage, dosage_and_administration, warnings, adverse_reactions, drug_interactions, and openfda cross-references (brand/generic names, manufacturer, NDC, pharmacologic class).

openFDA: Adverse Events (FAERS)

Search the FDA Adverse Event Reporting System. Each record describes a safety report including patient demographics, suspect drugs, reported reactions, and outcomes.

• URL: GET https://api.fda.gov/drug/event.json
• Parameters:

• Example:

curl 'https://api.fda.gov/drug/event.json?search=patient.drug.openfda.brand_name:"aspirin"&limit=1'

• Response: Returns meta.results.total (722,607 for aspirin). Each result: safetyreportid, serious (1=yes, 2=no), primarysourcecountry, receivedate, nested patient with patientsex, reaction array (MedDRA terms + reactionoutcome), and drug array with drugcharacterization (1=suspect, 2=concomitant, 3=interacting), medicinalproduct, openfda cross-references.

WHO GHO: Health Indicator Data

Retrieve data points for a specific health indicator with country, year, and sex dimensions.

• URL: GET https://ghoapi.azureedge.net/api/{IndicatorCode}
• Parameters (OData v4 query options):

• Example:

# Life expectancy at birth (WHOSIS_000001)
curl "https://ghoapi.azureedge.net/api/WHOSIS_000001?\$top=2"

• Response: OData JSON with value array. Each record: SpatialDim (ISO country, e.g., "BTN"), ParentLocation (WHO region), TimeDim (year), Dim1 (sex: "SEX_BTSX"/"SEX_MLE"/"SEX_FMLE"), Value ("67.8 [67.1-68.6]"), NumericValue (67.845665), Low/High confidence bounds.