This project, funded by CIHR Canada and led in Colombia by Professor Laura Andrea Rodríguez Villamizar, Director of the Department of Public Health at the School of Medicine of the Universidad Industrial de Santander (UIS), and in Canada by Carleton University, aims to create a population-based cohort using administrative data to provide key evidence for the formulation of public health policies in the country.
The project brings together academic institutions from Colombia and Canada, as well as the entities responsible for producing official statistics in both countries: DANE Colombia and Statistics Canada. In this way, Colombia’s institutional and academic strengths are combined with Canada’s more than 15 years of experience in consolidating and analyzing the Canadian Census Health and Environment Cohorts (CanCHECs).
The objective of this first phase is to strengthen DANE’s capacity to create a census-linked cohort connected to vital statistics (mortality and births) and, through analysis of the resulting cohort, to understand—based on robust evidence—how social, economic, territorial, and environmental conditions influence mortality from childhood through adulthood.
The Caribbean campus of Universidad de los Andes hosted the meeting that helped consolidate this long-term initiative funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR). The project brings together researchers from UIS and Carleton University, with the support of teams from the Faculty of Medicine and the SDG Center of Universidad de los Andes, as well as McGill University, the University of Alberta, Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, Universidad de Antioquia, the Bogotá District Health Secretariat, DANE, Statistics Canada, the Institut National de la Recherche Scientifique, Dalhousie University, and Queen’s University, strengthening dialogue between academia and government entities.
During the meeting, participants discussed methodological approaches, technical challenges, and opportunities for cooperation to integrate administrative records, censuses, and other official data sources. This joint effort will make it possible to define a roadmap to enhance the use of data to identify the multiple factors influencing mortality among children, adolescents, and adults, with an emphasis on social and territorial inequalities.
The initiative represents a significant advance for public health research and evidence-based policymaking. It also directly contributes to the achievement of Sustainable Development Goal 3 (Good Health and Well-being) by generating knowledge on the structural causes of mortality, and SDG 17 (Partnerships for the Goals) through the consolidation of an international network of academic and institutional cooperation. Through this project, the participating universities and institutions reaffirm their commitment to producing rigorous knowledge that contributes to improving people’s quality of life and to informed decision-making in health policy.
