Data & Analytic Services

Our team collaborates with BCCDC colleagues, public health and community partners, and the BC Ministry of Health. Providing expertise and services in privacy and governance, data integration, data management, data analysis and reporting.

Data and Analytic Services supports BCCDC program areas across all components of the surveillance cycle, from data acquisition and data management, to data analysis and dissemination. We strive to provide surveillance information to those who need to know in order to undertake public health action.

How We Work

We work closely with BCCDC program areas to ensure that data used for surveillance is of the highest quality, that caveats and data limitations are understood, and that processes used to manage and analyse data are standardized and efficient.

We have standardized and automated surveillance processes to enable efficiencies and cross-coverage for routine surveillance activities that support surge capacity in time of heightened public health need.

We are also looking to the future and positioning BCCDC to be able to meet the computationally higher processing demands of linked data, building robust linked public health data stores with strong, active, data governance frameworks, and making data more accessible to stakeholders in readily analyzable formats.

The Analytics Framework

Data Access & Governance

Coordinate and manage data sharing agreements
Develop data governance frameworks and policies for data access, use and disclosure
Create data access security models
Maintain infrastructure to securely transfer data routinely

Integration, Automation & Standards

Link public health datasets in real-time
Automate routine data analyses
Document source data systems, datasets, and procedures
Champion data standards and standard analysis algorithms

Analysis Services, Tools & Metadata

Develop centralized data analysis and modelling tools and alerts
Develop and maintain advanced computational capacity
Expand and maintain a metadata repository
Integrate analytic tools (e.g., GIS, dashboards) into surveillance workflows
Interpret data and develop knowledge translation resources
Provide consultation and analysis services through Central Analytic Team (CAT)

Surveillance Reporting

Stakeholder engagement
Interactive data dashboards and maps
Automate routine report production
Publish public release data and information

Data Quality & Data Privacy

Monitor data quality
Support staff compliance with privacy policy

Our Structure

The key pillars of Data & Analytic Services are: Data informatics, Data Science and Innovation, Observatory for Population and Public Health, Population and Public Health Surveillance.

Data privacy and governance are present throughout all of our pillars to help improve processes by which data are shared among BCCDC and our partners. Ensuring privacy standards are upheld and sensitive information is handled appropriately is our priority.

Data and Informatics

Provides data coordination, data management and integration of raw data across BCCDC. We work to manage data warehousing, data automation, and develop data marts. We create and sustain BCCDC’s data standards, data dictionaries and metadata, ensuring quality improvement is in place across the surveillance cycle.

Data Science and Innovation

Provides analytic services, consultations, and statistical support to BCCDC and our stakeholders. We lead BCCDC's Geographic Information System (GIS) mapping services, while also providing statistical and mathematical modelling support for centre-wide priorities. We deliver public health intelligence services by interpreting data and developing knowledge translation materials. Our team proudly leads BCCDC’s analytic and data science training initiatives to support skill development amongst staff.

BC Observatory for Population & Public Health

Provides collaborative leadership in the development of provincial and regional surveillance capacity with respect to non-communicable diseases and injuries, risk and protective factors, and environmental health. We support the PHO and Chief Medical Health Officers in regional health authorities to systematically report on their populations’ health status. Visit the BC Observatory for Population & Public Health webpage.

Population & Public Health Surveillance

Collects, analyzes, interprets, and disseminates information on demography, socio-economic status, health status and chronic diseases data to inform strategies for reducing the burden of chronic disease. Visit the Population & Public Health Surveillance webpage.

Examples of Our Work

COVID-19 Data Products

Other Data Products

View Our Research

Public Health Reporting Data Warehouse (PHRDW)

The Public Health Reporting Data Warehouse (PHRDW), is a data warehouse that links data sources of public health importance to provide a de-identified view of an individual's health experience.

PHRDW is used to conduct real-time public health surveillance in BC in order to identify changing patterns of disease activity. PHRDW matches patients from different source systems and applies data cleaning algorithms and transformations that make data analysis-ready.

PHRDW provides a platform for reliably linking data from multiple sources to the same individual.

PHRDW Overview

Who uses it?

Public health epidemiologists, statisticians and analysts at provincial and regional levels use PHRDW as do staff at the BCCDC Provincial Laboratory.

What kind of data is available?

Subsets of themed data – or data marts – have been created to support surveillance of enteric diseases, vaccine preventable diseases, chronic diseases, respiratory diseases, environmental health conditions, sexually transmitted and blood borne infections. A data mart containing only Panorama data has also been developed to allow ad-hoc querying of other communicable diseases, including TB cases and their contacts.

The first data mart was developed in 2011, and new marts continue to be created. Data includes information collected on notifiable diseases per the provincial surveillance forms, laboratory tests, and deaths.

New data sources continue to be added as data sharing agreements are put in place.

How do you access it?

PHRDW governance bodies approve the development of each data mart, including the type and level of access users will have.

A PHRDW User Access Request Form is available for PHSA users or through PHRDW Power Users for regional health authorities.

How is data linked?

Data is linked using a custom person matching algorithm with match rates validated between 99.1% and 100%, depending on the subsets of records contained in the mart. This automates a traditionally very time consuming activity, freeing up analytic resources and standardizing process.

Can I use the data for research?

Under the PHRDW data governance model, research is not a standard purpose but can be authorized with additional approvals from source system data stewards.

How is data protected in PHRDW?

The platform uses PHSA enterprise architecture standards, is built to be scalable, and has passed a provincial Privacy Impact Assessment and a Security Threat and Risk Assessment.

Both provincial and regional views of data are available, allowing health authorities to view a subset of records for clients living in or receiving services from a particular Health Authority.

How is PHRDW managed?

It is operated by the BC Centre for Disease Control and PHSA Performance Management and Reporting under a data governance framework inclusive of all data contributors.

Provincial Health Services Authority