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 
2009 Year in Review

2009 in review: milestones and accomplishments

As we head into 2010 it is timely to reflect on the many things that were accomplished in 2009 thanks to the hard work of our staff and the collaborative efforts of our partners and stakeholders. In particular, we thank the BC Ministry of Health Services, BC Vital Statistics Agency and WorkSafeBC for their support during the past year.

download pdf (205kb)

Data holdings

  • Information Sharing Agreements signed with Ministry of Health Services, British Columbia Vital Statistics Agency and WorkSafe BC.
  • ISAs currently in negotiation with five new data providers.
  • First delivery of data under new ISAs, including expanded data fields.

Data access

  • New Research Data Access Framework developed and signed-off by Data Stewards.
  • Reduction in Data Access Request review wait times and reduction in backlog of Data Access Request reviews by one third.
  • Reduction in amendment wait times by one third.
  • Rolled out the Secure Research Environment, providing researchers with secure data storage, back up and access to analysis software. The Secure Research Environment currently has 14 users.
  • Established a Geomatics Unit at Simon Fraser University to be focused on geospatial data.

Events

  • Delivery of successful conference attended by 230 delegates including Data Stewards, researchers, policy makers, privacy experts and the general public.
  • Launch of new website featuring revised data access and data holdings information, online training and best practice materials.
  • Series of road show presentations around the Province to inform the wider research community, data librarians and Research Ethics Boards of our misson, vision and services.

Education & training

  • Workshops featuring world renowned experts delivered including Admin Data 101, Health and GIS 101, Spatial Epidemiology and Space-Time Disease Surveillance.
  • New mobile training lab with fleet of 20 laptops for pan-provincial training.
  • Development of Spatial Discovery Portal prototype to improve access to, and integrated use of, spatial data.

Systems & security

  • Successful extensive review by external third party on our information security and network systems.
  • Development of full suite of policies and procedures (15 in total) to ISO and BC Government specifications, including Privacy, Security and Data Management.
  • Full implementation of Population Data BC security model including separation of content and identifiers and moating of Red Zone.

Support

  • Funding commitment beyond March 31, 2010 by The Michael Smith Foundation.
  • Active commitment to our mandate and process development through participation of Data Stewards (currently nine) in Data Steward’s Working Group.
  • Active involvement of all BC Research Universities on our Governance Oversight Committee.
  • Engagement of Committee of Researchers representing and communicating the diverse needs and viewpoints of the research community.

In 2010 look out for …

  • Expansion of in-person and online training workshops and development of training data sets.
  • Launch of the harmonised Data Access Request with new expanded checklists.
  • Launch of online workshops in Admin Data 101 and Privacy.
  • Published linkage rates.
  • Capacity to handle greater number of data requests.
  • New data offerings including Vital Statistics Marriage, and Early Development Instrument.
  • Blog and forums for researchers to exchange ideas.