BC Data Scout™

Why was BC Data Scout™ developed?

The Ministry of Health is responsible for maintaining many health information databases. With approval, health researchers can use BC Ministry of Health data to study treatment patterns and effectiveness, health trends, and their relationship to health outcomes. Researcher access to these databases is highly controlled, and researchers must often submit a full Data Access Request without knowing if sufficient data exists to test their ideas. The wait period for access to data is long (at times several months) and the process is labour intensive. Too often, researchers go through the full Data Access Request process only to find out that not enough information is available to conduct their study.

Benefits of BC Data Scout™

BC Data Scout™ offers researchers a tool to quickly finding out if there is enough data to make a study worthwhile. BC Data Scout™ is designed to provide researchers with a data feasibility report in less than two weeks. This allows B.C. researchers to understand the quality and availability of data, save time, and secure third-party research funding.

The data supplied by BC Data Scout™ is stripped of any personal information and cannot be traced back to individuals, in accordance with data-related laws and regulations.

Who is BC Data Scout™ for?

BC Data Scout™ is currently offered free of cost to B.C.’s academic researchers. Access is provided through PopulationData BC’s online portal (https://my.popdata.bc.ca/bcscout/).

To access to BC Data Scout ™, researchers must have a my.popdata account and login.