Comprehensive health databank to be created in BC

Vancouver, BC – Provincial funding of $2.9 million will help to create a University of British Columbia research centre entitled Population Health & Learning Observatory. The observatory will build a comprehensive databank on health and human development and will form a research hub that will create innovative, interdisciplinary research and training at provincial, national and international levels.

The observatory will also establish a first in environmental health research by linking the provincial ministries of water, land and air protection and health services and Environment Canada data on air, water, soil and food contamination and their impact on Canadian health and social development.

"The research will be undertaken by an outstanding international team of pioneering researchers, who will use the Population Health & Learning Observatory to consolidate Canada’s position as one of the leading research nations in this area," says Martha Piper, president of UBC.