Introducing the Public Access Tabulated Health Statistics (PATHS) system: a modular data management system for curating, archiving, and disseminating public-use health datasets
Abstract
Epidemiologic research that addresses community and geographic influences in the United States increasingly depends on publicly available measures. When researchers lose access to historical data releases, they face workflow disruptions and compromised reproducibility. Recent analyses exposed two distinct vulnerabilities in centralized data infrastructure: the removal or alteration of long-standing federal data and the cessation of continual data releases. To address the former, systems that preserve existing datasets and ensure continued access independent of upstream changes are urgently needed. In response, we developed Public Access Tabulated Health Statistics (PATHS), a modular data management system for curating, archiving, and disseminating public-use health datasets (Figure). PATHS comprises four integrated components: (1) a Registry, built on Research Electronic Data Capture (REDCap), that catalogs dataset metadata (e.g., source URL, download date, and reference year); (2) a Repository that stores unmodified and digitally fingerprinted copies of original datasets with standardized documentation; (3) Modules, configured by resource-specific YAML files, that harmonize join fields across datasets; and, (4) a Data Builder, a REDCap-based interface through which researchers request compiled multisource data via an automated extract, transform, load pipeline. The modular architecture allows new data sources to be integrated into PATHS semiautomatically, with potential for full automation. The catalog currently includes 54 county-level files from sources such as the CDC/ATSDR Social Vulnerability Index and AHRQ Community-Level Health Database, with infrastructure designed to scale to additional sources and geographies (e.g., census tract, ZIP Code, or state). In conclusion, we have designed PATHS to be a minimalist, reproducible safeguard against disruptions to the public health evidence base, with all assets made fully available to our research community.

