The Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging (CLSA) and the Medical Research Council Dementias Platform UK (DPUK) are pursuing opportunities for collaborative research using big data to address the public health burden of dementia.

The CLSA is a national cohort for the study of aging funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR). The initiative is led by Canadian researchers Parminder Raina of McMaster University, Christina Wolfson of McGill University and Susan Kirkland of Dalhousie University.

The DPUK is a U.K.-based public-private partnership designated to fast-track scientific understanding, treatments and the prevention of disease in the field of dementia research. Professor John Gallacher of the University of Oxford is the director and principal investigator of the initiative.

The collaboration between the CLSA and DPUK is motivated by a shared understanding that clinical impact in the area of dementia requires a concerted research effort in order to better harness big data to enable data sharing and joint analyses where expertise from both parties is utilized.

Together, the CLSA and DPUK will work to promote the exchange of ideas and techniques for the collaborative use of their databases, explore interoperability of data collection with the view towards establishing big data initiatives, and develop broad big data projects linking clinical data to health-care utilization.

The partnership will promote international collaborative research and development activities, support training and knowledge exchanges in order to enhance the skills and capabilities of biomedical researchers, and promote knowledge exchange through establishing and facilitating networking activity.

Read the DPUK article here.