World Health Organisation - Data API using the new REST nodes

The World Health Organisation (WHO) provides a wide range of data on health related topics. Here we show how to access data from their RESTful webservice, which provides information on causes of death. The data are retrieved as XML, and the relevant data are extracted using the XPath nodes.
After some processing and aggregation statistics a subset of the data is plotted using a Tag cloud to show differences in the top 10 causes of death for men and women.
We also plot a Bar Chart showing how death rates have changed between 2000 and 2012.

We also show to do combine multiple calls to a webservice using the GET Request node. Once again, the XML data are processed using the XPath nodes, and the leading causes of death are subsequently plotted in a bar chart. This chart highlights the differences between the various regions of the world.

External resources

• E-Learning course - Sending a GET Request to a REST service
• WHO datasets
• Information about WHO data API