DASH has aligned with projects and initiatives currently underway to maximize stakeholder engagement and accelerate our efforts in data access, data assets, data literacy, and data analytics. 

One of the projects that will form a foundation for our first key objective, Data Assets, is the:

COVID-19 Metadata Commons

This project is funded by the UBC Faculty of Medicine (FoM) COVID-19 Data Science Node and funded through a FoM Strategic Investment Fund. This is a joint project with stakeholders spanning across BC health authorities, UBC FoM and School of Population and Public Health, and a Pan-Canadian research network for health data.

The project centers around developing and implementing a metadata framework and collection system for COVID-19-related research datasets in BC. The collation of metadata information across a large volume of COVID-19-related research datasets will enable researchers to identify relevant datasets that may be used to expand their scope of analysis and facilitate collaboration between research groups.

While the original project has thus far focused on COVID-19 metadata, the framework created here will serve as a proof of concept, and underpin an expansion into broader FOM data sets that will be led by DASH.

On June 22nd, DASH hosted a demonstration and discussion of the metadata commons. MHA candidate Sarah Lin provided a demonstration and project update, and computer scientist, Jason Hall, reviewed input requirements for PI's to verify their metadata.  Finally, project lead, Dr. Kim McGrail, led a Q&A and discussion period to learn more about PI's thoughts as future contributors to and users of the platform. 

Download June 22nd workshop slides.

If you would like to get involved in the pilot project, please reach out to DASH.coordinator@ubc.ca