NEWS

New Data Access Request form – applying for data easier than ever

Applications for administrative data for research just became much easier in British Columbia thanks to a collaborative effort  ... more

Few seats still available for summer workshops

There are still a few seats available for these summer workshops in Multilevel and Hierarchical Linear Modeling (July 5-9) and An Introduction to Bayesian Disease Mapping (July 29-30)  ... more

Admin Data 101 workshop now online!

This free workshop explains the basics of what administrative data are, where they come from, how they can be used for research, what the data produced for a research project actually look like and what skills are needed to work with them ... more

ARCHIVED NEWS

History of the Health Services Data

In the early 1970s the predecessor to the Centre for Health Services and Policy Research (CHSPR) - UBC's Division of Health Services Research and Development - began to maintain and provide access to a rich variety of health-related data, by agreement with the BC Ministry of Health Services and other bodies.

In 1988, a Linked Health Data Project was launched by an informal cluster of researchers from UBC, the BC Ministry of Health, and the BC Cancer Agency. What unified the group was a keen interest in the research and planning potential of databases that could link individuals' interactions with the health care system over time. This project led to an understanding of the efficiencies of creating a central resource for researchers.

The BC Linked Health Database (BCLHD) was designed to capture the power of linkable, longitudinal data, and avoid the inefficiencies associated with project-by-project data linkage. The BCLHD initially brought together core data on health care services utilization and vital events for the province's residents from 1985 onwards. Over subsequent years, the BCLHD expanded to include data on other factors relevant to applied health services and population health research, including data files from the BC Cancer Agency and WorkSafeBC.

Research use of the BCLHD began in 1996 after agreement with the BC Ministry of Health and the BC Privacy Commissioner to an access policy that governed the use of the data.

In 2005, CHSPR won a grant from the Canada Foundation for Innovation to improve its physical premises housing the BCLHD and to further expand the breadth of available research data. Building on this success, in 2008, a consortium of researchers received funding from the Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research to create a multi-university partnership that governs what is now Population Data BC. In 2009 the BCLHD was transitioned to Population Data BC, and CHSPR's role shifted away from data management.

Today, CHSPR serves as a major partner in Population Data BC by providing expertise and leadership in health care data use. CHSPR continues to conduct population-based, data driven research that informs policy and improves health care for all Canadians. This research draws upon the rich data resources now available through Population Data BC and provides insight for strengthening data use. For more infomation on CHSPR visit their website at: http://www.chspr.ubc.ca/

Population Data BC aims to build on past success and is engaged in efforts to greatly expand its existing data holdings to include educational, occupational, environmental and socioeconomic information. Over time, Population Data BC aims to become the world's most comprehensive data resource on factors that influence human health, well being and development.