COVID-19 Clinical Research Coordination Initiative Newsletter

Launch of REACH BC

Since launching at the end of April, over 1500 British Columbians have signed up on REACH BC to search for health research opportunities related to COVID-19 and other health topics. REACH BC has been a valuable tool for researchers to share their research studies with the public and find potential participants. Currently, there are over 50 research projects listed on REACH BC, 14 of which are related to COVID-19.

Coordinated Contact and Recruitment of COVID-19 Patients

Together with the BC Centre for Disease Control and the COVID-19 Clinical Research Coordination Initiative, REACH BC is coordinating the contact of individuals with COVID-19 about research opportunities.

To learn more about the REACH BC platform, visit www.reachbc.ca.

New Website

The COVID-19 Clinical Research Coordination Initiative (CRCI) website has been updated.  Visit crci.med.ubc.ca for more information about the current status of CRCI activities and resources.

SYSU Symposium

We are very pleased to announce that the SYSU-UBC Virtual COVID-19 Symposium took place on December 1st. The event was hosted in partnership by the UBC Faculty of Medicine and the Sun Yat-Sen University (SYSU) in Guangzhou, China. It was our third joint symposium together and our goal was to highlight the COVID-19 Research taking place at our institutions, and to look for potential collaborations

A recording of this event can be viewed by following this link.

CITF COVID-19+ Cohort Survey

The COVID-19 Immunity Task Force (CITF), funded by the Government of Canada, brings together university, hospital and public health expertise to map the scope of coronavirus infection in Canada. The CITF is currently conducting a survey to capture the assembled clinical cohorts of previously infected individuals (COVID-19+ cohorts) across the country. If you are involved in collection of biological samples from COVID-19+ patients for research or aware of any COVID-19+ cohorts, you are encouraged to complete this survey and distribute within your networks.

Biobank

Faculty of Medicine has secured some philanthropic donation to help kickstart the centralized operations of the BC COVID-19 Biobank. These funds will make a tremendous difference in helping us move forward on this provincial-wide initiative.

Registry

The CRCI Data Science Group has proposed the creation of a single registry for COVID-19, that includes data on all patients who have tested positive or who have been confirmed as a case. The registry will be managed by the PHSA/MOH and augmented via data linkage to routinely collected data (e.g. MSP, PharmaNet) and purpose-built data (e.g. ICU management details). Requests for researcher access to the registry and to any linked data will be coordinated by Population Data BC. This will make it possible to link to other data, including immigration data and data available through the BC Data Innovation Program.

Funding