On July 6, 2026, the Health Research hub (HRH) hosted a Data Townhall, bringing together researchers and campus partners as part of a community of interest to discuss emerging priorities for health-related data infrastructure, governance, privacy, and collaboration at the University of Waterloo. The session followed HRH’s recent campus-wide survey on health research data practices and provided an opportunity to share survey findings, highlight current initiatives, and invite continued input from the research community.
The survey results underscored both the strength and complexity of Waterloo’s health research community, including the data our researchers generate and their infrastructure needs. Nearly 80% of respondents reported using interdisciplinary approaches, and almost all reported collaborating with external partners, highlighting the highly connected nature of health research across and beyond campus. At the same time, researchers identified persistent challenges around data storage, sharing, access, governance, privacy, and security. There is a clear appetite for coordinated support: 75% of respondents expressed interest in a catalogue of accessible health datasets, while 63% indicated interest in a PHIPA/PIPEDA-compliant platform, with another 35% unsure. These findings point to important opportunities for HRH to help build shared infrastructure, and support education and awareness around health data storage, access, and management.
Researchers should be able to focus on doing research. Privacy, security, ethics, and compliance should be built into the infrastructure from the outset, rather than solved project by project.
Together, the presentations helped paint a picture of what an institutional health data strategy could look like at the University of Waterloo. Dr. Stan Woo presented Project CanView as a proof of principle, showing how a secure, shared health data repository could support evidence-based policy, AI-enabled clinical decision support, and improved patient outcomes. Dr. Helen Chen outlined the infrastructure needed to make this kind of work sustainable, describing a shared, cloud-based “research house” where projects could access secure storage, computing capacity, data ingestion tools, access controls, and other common services. Dr. Adam Molnar completed the picture by emphasizing that governance, privacy, ethics, and legal compliance must be built into this infrastructure from the outset, helping researchers inherit safeguards rather than relying on ad hoc solutions to solve these challenges.
Discussion during the town hall focused on practical next steps, including training for researchers, graduate students, and staff; coordination with the Office of Research, Research Data Management Services, and other campus partners; and community engagement. Participants also raised the possibility of HRH serving as a central training and support hub for health data, PHIPA, and related research practices.
I found yesterday’s session both very informative and exciting for the future – this [type of] infrastructure is certainly of great value to our research and the broader clinical research community that we are a part of.
HRH will continue engaging researchers and campus partners as the data pillar develops. Feedback from the survey and the town hall will help inform future planning. Researchers interested in staying connected are encouraged to contact HRH and contribute to the ongoing conversation. Plans are also underway for an in-person event this fall to continue the dialogue.