Healthy Behaviour Data Challenge – Phase II
Well-being, Health and Biomedical Discovery
Deadlines
Academic Unit: Inquire with Unit
Memorial Deadline: Wednesday 10th, January 2018
External Deadline: Monday 15th, January 2018
Description
The Healthy Behaviour Data Challenge is an international partnership between Canada (CIHR and the Public Health Agency of Canada) and United States partners (the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services). The challenge is led and managed by the MaRS Discovery District.
The competition is focused on the identification and evaluation of new data and data sources for use in public health surveillance. In particular, the challenge will incentivize the identification and aggregation of data from non-traditional data sources including wearables, social media and mobile applications, to measure indicators of physical activity, sedentary behaviour and sleep. The use of this incentive prize design will offer an opportunity to expand research opportunities, advance new knowledge, and address key data gaps and needs in population health surveillance in Canada.
As Canada’s federal funding agency for health research, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research plays an active leadership role in the data ecosystem. CIHR’s strategic plan, Health Research Roadmap II, includes a commitment to embrace the data revolution by advancing data-intensive research, and seizing upon the transformative power of information and communication technologies.
This strategic partnership provides an opportunity to promote an innovative approach to surveillance through non-traditional partnerships, international collaboration and mining and utilizing new sources of data. The launch of this data challenge highlights the Public Health Agency of Canada as a credible and innovative leader in surveillance of chronic disease and healthy living in Canada. It also demonstrates CIHR’s commitment to health innovation, as well as creating the research collaborations needed to address Canada’s complex health challenges.
This Challenge is divided into two phases. Phase 1 is the idea formation phase during which applicants identify and propose sources of data and a methodology for combining data from multiple sources to measure any number of indicators for physical activity, sedentary behaviour and/or sleep. Phase 1 finalists will be invited to participate in Phase 2 where they will implement their concepts, the results of which will be compared to existing research, analysis, and/or surveillance outputs from the Public Health Agency of Canada. Winners of Phase 2 will have the opportunity to have their concept integrated into PHAC’s public health surveillance systems.
For more information, please consult the Healthy Behaviour Data Challenge website, or CIHR’s website.