Overview
Personalized healthcare programs for Canadians require the collection and integration of high-quality data and biosamples from a vast number of individuals to capture the complex factors that can shape an individual’s health over the course of their lifetime. This data must then be made accessible to both public and commercial health decision-makers. In Canada, the sharing and combining of data across jurisdictions, rather than collecting the data itself, is a main barrier to progress in precision medicine. The Canadian Partnership for Tomorrow’s Health (CanPath) is Canada’s largest population health cohort and a gateway platform to data worldwide. This project will build upon CanPath’s existing infrastructure to democratize access to the platform. It will develop and pilot a data safe haven (DSH), a secure environment within which researchers, clinicians and industry in Canada can access deeply characterized population health and biobank data. The DSH holds the potential to launch Canada to the forefront of genomic medicine globally. It will also support the development of Canada’s biotechnology sector and industry research as well as create the ability to harmonize with other national precision medicine programs. The ultimate result will be earlier diagnosis of disease and medical interventions for Canadians.