Looking for professional development credits for PHDA courses?
Currently, the Canadian Health Information Management Association (CHIMA) and the Canadian Institute of Public Health Inspectors (CIPHI) recognize our PHDA courses for 10 CPE credits per course.
See also: PHDA and Core Competencies for Public Health Professionals
Our courses provide the practical skills you need to enhance your work and research. See what our instructors are saying about our courses.
CRDCN 2025: 25 Years of Partnership for Research
CRDCN 2025: 25 Years of Partnership for Research is a two-day conference with programming geared towards policymakers, researchers, students and faculty across the social science disciplines, including the plenary sessions, a retrospective session on the Canadian Research Data Centre Network and multiple sessions for over 70 adjudicated paper presentations and posters.
Accessing Data Through DASH: Researcher Impact Story
Are you interested in multi-regional research in Canada? Learn about the value of using administrative data from more than one province through the lens of a researcher. In this session, Dr. Scott Garrison and Erik Youngson will share the benefits, challenges and triumphs of multi-regional research conducted for the BedMed Randomized Controlled Trial, a pragmatic trial in primary care looking at the timing of taking anti-hypertensive medication.
Request to Contact process
Researchers may request contact information for residents of British Columbia to invite them to participate in a research study.
This is done by submitting a Request to Disclose Personal Information for the Purpose of Contacting Individuals to Participate in Health Research form to the BC Ministry of Health Data Stewardship Committee (DSC) and the Office of Information and Privacy Commission for BC (OIPC).
Homelessness in Health Administrative Data
The next in HDRN Canada's Big Ideas Speaker Series Lucie Richard and Diana Ridgeway will discuss how to use identifiers of homelessness in health administrative data. This session will provide an insightful overview of improvements in data quality, validation of case definitions and best practices for using homelessness identifiers.
What do British Columbians think about data access for research?
The power of data lies in their use to make discoveries that can affect and benefit the public. This power is even greater when data of different types and from different sources are combined or linked together. Linking data, however, also can introduce risks, such as the potential to identify certain sub-populations or communities.
Frequently asked questions
General
- What is PopData and what does it do?
Population Data BC (PopData) is a multi-university, data and education resource facilitating interdisciplinary research on the determinants of human health, well-being and development.
Providing a range of services to Researchers and data providers, PopData strives to ensure that Researchers have timely access to the data and training they need to address research questions on population health. Research using these data informs policy-making and leads to healthier communities.
Data access streams
There are currently three streams available for academic researchers to access data on the population of British Columbia:
- The Data Innovation Program (DI Program)
- Population Data BC
- Health Data Platform BC (HDPBC)
Researchers will be routed to a data access stream based on a range of qualifying criteria which includes the data required to answer the research question and the tools required for analysis.
Getting started with your Data Access Request (DAR)
| 1: | Define your research question. |
| 2: | Make sure your project meets the eligibility requirements under the 5 SAFEs model. |
| 3: | Make sure that you, and your team members meet the eligibility criteria to apply for data.Subscribe to
Sign up for e-news and keep up to date with what's new at PopData, including the latest on data access, data available and upcoming events.Follow us on Bluesky and check out our YouTube Channel. Copyright 2025 | All rights reserved |
