Population Data BC – Phase II

Population Data BC provides researchers with access to one of the world’s largest collections of health care, health services and population health data, and a comprehensive education and training service on how to best use those data.

With the foundational processes and products in place, the proposal outlined a plan for the expansion of the Platform in terms of its use, user groups and enhancement of its quality.

Phase II funding approved Fall 2012.

• Phase I overview

Population Data BC provides researchers with access to one of the world’s largest collections of health care, health services and population health data, and a comprehensive education and training service on how to best use those data.

With the foundational processes and products in place, the proposal outlined a plan for the expansion of the Platform in terms of its use, user groups and enhancement of its quality.

It is expected that data will be added from a broad range of new sources and that, as the range and variety of data holdings expands, so, too, will the potential users. Accordingly, Phase II embodies a significant emphasis on outreach, seeking to intensify access by existing users, and attracting new users through a particular focus on broadening access throughout BC.

On the training front, emphasis will be on building and maintaining existing delivery modes (in person workshops, online workshops, Professional Certificate program) and implementing a new mode through webinars.  The goal will be the continual development of capacity for people to use the data resource.

Knowledge translation will be a central focus throughout all of Phase II activities.  We will continue to build out the Research in Action web pages, outlining the projects underway, related publications and drawing policy implications.  Through targeted Days of Dialogue the platform will bring policy makers and researchers together on current issues, supporting not just collaborations but also policy relevant research and research based policy.

The vision for the end of Phase II is of a data resource with the widest range of datasets of any comparable repository in the world and an application volume of at least 45 applications per year.  Significantly expanded data holdings will help support a much larger researcher-user community, including a research applicant pool drawn from all research universities in BC and provinces across Canada.  The aim is to create an environment in which BC is viewed, once again, as the go-to place for research in human health, well-being and development using linkable, secondary data sources.