Cameron Rhiannon, Savić Kallesøe Sarah, Griffiths Emma J, Dooley Damion, Sridhar Aishwarya, Sehar Anoosha, Tindale Lauren C, Hsiao William W L
Faculty of Health Sciences, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, BC, Canada.
Bioinformatics Graduate Program, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada.
Arch Public Health. 2025 Apr 30;83(1):117. doi: 10.1186/s13690-025-01604-5.
The timely sharing of public health information is critical during a pandemic and is an obstacle that Canada has yet to fully address. During the COVID-19 pandemic, sequencing of the SARS-CoV-2 genome enhanced our understanding of transmission patterns, aided in identifying variants of concern, and supported the development and evaluation of diagnostic tests and vaccines. The Canadian national response faced challenges in aggregating genomic contextual data and carrying out integrated analysis across regions partly due to disparities in COVID-19 case report forms used to capture epidemiological and clinical data that accompanies SARS-CoV-2 sequence data. Such variations delay data integration and make consistent analysis difficult or impossible. The objective of this work was to understand what information was being collected from COVID-19 case report forms used across Canada and identify potential contextual data harmonization issues and solutions.
Provincial/territorial/national Canadian COVID-19 case report forms were subjected to field-by-field comparisons to identify variations in data categorization, structures, formats, types, granularity, ambiguity, and questions asked. Federal epidemiologists were consulted to substantiate the results.
Data harmonization issues and common data elements were identified. We make recommendations for better national coordination, integrated databases, and data harmonization tools.
This report compares data elements of the various case report forms used across Canada to identify overlaps and differences in the collection method of COVID-19 case information, while also highlighting data harmonization complications and potential solutions. Identifying available data elements will better guide COVID-19 surveillance and research.
在大流行期间及时共享公共卫生信息至关重要，而这是加拿大尚未完全解决的一个障碍。在新冠疫情期间，对严重急性呼吸综合征冠状病毒2（SARS-CoV-2）基因组进行测序增进了我们对传播模式的了解，有助于识别关注的变异株，并支持诊断测试和疫苗的开发与评估。加拿大的国家应对措施在汇总基因组背景数据以及跨地区进行综合分析方面面临挑战，部分原因是用于收集伴随SARS-CoV-2序列数据的流行病学和临床数据的新冠病例报告表存在差异。这些差异延迟了数据整合，使得进行一致的分析变得困难甚至不可能。这项工作的目的是了解从加拿大各地使用的新冠病例报告表中收集了哪些信息，并识别潜在的背景数据协调问题及解决方案。
对加拿大省级/地区级/国家级的新冠病例报告表进行逐字段比较，以识别数据分类、结构、格式、类型、粒度、模糊性和所提问题方面的差异。咨询了联邦流行病学家以证实结果。
确定了数据协调问题和常见数据元素。我们就更好的国家协调、综合数据库和数据协调工具提出了建议。
本报告比较了加拿大各地使用的各种病例报告表的数据元素，以识别新冠病例信息收集方法中的重叠和差异，同时还突出了数据协调方面的复杂情况和潜在解决方案。确定可用的数据元素将更好地指导新冠疫情监测和研究。
