Methodology & Sources

Data Pipeline

The LicenseTrack Health dataset is compiled at build time by a single PHP command-line script (php seed.php) that writes JSON files to disk under data/. Each page template on the site reads from those JSON files at request time. The pipeline has no external runtime dependencies and the rendered HTML for every page is fully reproducible from the seed step.

Source Hierarchy

The dataset is intended to be sourced primarily from two public, government-maintained references: the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Outlook Handbook for occupational definitions, employment counts, projected growth, and median pay; and the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) Area Health Resources Files for state-level allied health workforce, training, and credentialing context. Where the BLS public API and the HRSA Area Health Resources Files are unavailable for unauthenticated build-time fetch — for example, because the BLS public endpoint is rate-limited per IP and the HRSA AHRF is distributed as a multi-gigabyte ZIP archive intended for offline analysis — the seed pipeline falls back to a structured generation step modeled on (a) the National Healthcareer Association (NHA) public certification documentation at nhanow.com/certifications, (b) the American Medical Technologists (AMT) public certification documentation at americanmedtech.org/Certifications, and (c) the published common-pattern requirements of the responsible state allied health licensing boards.

Wage Estimation Method

State-level wages on this site are modeled from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics May 2024 Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) national median for each role's SOC code. Each national median is scaled by a published state cost-of-living factor (sourced from cost-of-living index references that integrate housing, transportation, food, healthcare, and miscellaneous goods/services) to produce the state median wage. The 10th-percentile and 90th-percentile wage bands are derived from the state median using the typical inter-percentile spread observed in BLS state-level OEWS publications for allied health occupations (10th ≈ 78% of median; 90th ≈ 138% of median). State employment counts are derived from the BLS national employment figure for each SOC code, scaled by the state's share of U.S. population (Census 2024) with a small healthcare-density adjustment. Annual openings are derived from the BLS national 10-year projected growth rate plus a separations factor of approximately 7% per year applied to the modeled state employment base. These derived figures are intended as planning estimates; the authoritative source for any specific state-level OEWS wage is the BLS state estimate publication for that occupation.

What "Modeled" Means

Where individual numerical fields are derived from the structured generation step rather than directly from a state board publication, the values are produced deterministically from the role's published national credential profile and the state's documented regulatory posture (stricter-than-average jurisdictions, large workforce jurisdictions). The intent is to give readers a defensible, useful first-pass picture of the requirement landscape; readers are always directed to the responsible state board for authoritative current values before submitting an application or paying a fee.

Update Cadence

State licensing requirements are revised regularly through both administrative rulemaking and legislation. The dataset on this site is rebuilt on a published cadence and on demand when corrections are submitted through the contact channels. Where a state's posted regulations conflict with what is shown on this site, the state's posted regulations are the source of truth.

Independence

The site is editorially independent of every credentialing body, training provider, and state board referenced on it. No credentialing body, training provider, or state board has reviewed or approved the contents of any page on this site.