 <p>You could create a class to map your patients to;</p> <pre><code>private static class Patient { @JsonProperty("name") private String name; @JsonProperty("age") private int age; public Patient() { } public String getName() { return name; } public int getAge() { return age; } } </code></pre> <p>Then read your json into it via jackson</p> <pre><code>HashMap&lt;String, Patient&gt; patients = objectMapper.readValue(new File("patients.json"), new TypeReference&lt;HashMap&lt;String,Patient&gt;&gt;() {}); Patient patientA = patients.get("A"); String patientAName = patientA.getName(); int pateintAAge = patientA.getAge(); </code></pre>