Grant: Op Grant: Pandemic Research Platforms Interim Funding - Population-Based Cohort

The Canadian Partnership for Tomorrow's Health (CanPath) is Canada's largest longitudinal population health cohort, including ~350,000 participants spanning all 10 provinces. The CanPath data platform includes comprehensive data and biospecimens collected over 15 years and was established with a specific responsibility to serve as a resource for the research community. Accordingly, one of its fundamental components is a robust system to ensure that any researcher can access the data for a broad range of health research purposes (https://portal.canpath.ca). Importantly, our infrastructure is built to adapt to evolving data, population trends and population health challenges. The existing CanPath data platform includes harmonized baseline and follow-up questionnaire data capturing detailed information on lifestyle factors (e.g., diet, smoking, alcohol), sociodemographics, sex and gender, medical and reproductive histories, health outcomes, physical measurements (e.g., height, weight, blood pressure) and medications. Biospecimens including blood, urine and toenails are available for >170,000 participants and about 55,000 have existing genomic data. CanPath includes a broad representation of Canada's ethnic, regional, and ancestral diversity, including Indigenous, rural, and urban populations and immigrant communities, with 30% of the cohort identifying as a visible minority and 20% born outside of Canada. This reflects the diversity observed in the census. CanPath is the only cohort in Canada that can study differential risks and impacts of pandemics/health emergencies on a national scale.