Kim McGrail, PhD
Faculty, Centre for Health Services and Policy Research
Scientific Director, Health Data Research Network Canada (and SPOR Canadian Data Platform)
University of British Columbia
Q: What’s your background?
A: I was trained in quantitative research, and I would describe my background as at the intersection of health services research, population health, and health equity. My PhD specifically was on equity in health care services use and health care financing, and my research since then has involved a lot of focus on health services needs of older adults, primary care, and evaluation of population-based policy reforms. All of this relies on population-based, linked data.
Q: How did you get into the linkage space?
A: That started before I was even thinking about doing a PhD. There’s a longer story here that I am happy to share with anyone who is interested, but the short version is that I was lucky to have a research assistant job (as a new immigrant to Canada) with some very visionary professors. They worked for years with our provincial Ministry of Health to set up a data linkage system, recognizing that it was too complex and labour intensive to link data on a project-by-project basis. In 1996, British Columbia proclaimed its Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act. The data linkage system, which evolved into Population Data BC, started as soon as the Act was in force, relying on the Act’s clear description of allowable research uses of linked data. I was asked to be the manager of that start-up unit, and thankfully I said yes.
Q: What was some of your early linkage work? What are you working on now?
A: In the very early days, I spent a lot of time working with programmers and learned a lot about the actual process of data linkage. I helped to expand linkable data beyond health care to include Workers Compensation, and then later many other types of data. My research interests are very eclectic, with the uniting feature being the data. Beyond large-scale policy evaluation, I am really drawn to the creativity and conceptual development that is possible with these rich, routinely-collected data. More recently I’ve been quite focused on “putting land and people back into the data” – essentially trying to change the conversation about quantitative data and our responsibilities to people who are represented in those.
Q: How did you get involved with IPDLN?
A: I was very lucky to be one of the people who in December 2008 met in London (again, drawn together by visionary leaders) to discuss the possibilities of creating an international network. Informally, we talked about this being a group for mutual aid, because it was clear that data linkage centres were all facing similar issues and would benefit from sharing and learning from each other. We created the International Health Data Linkage Network (IHDLN) and an inaugural conference was hosted in Australia in 2012. We wanted to expand beyond health care, so collectively changed the name to IPDLN during the 2014 conference that we hosted in Vancouver.
Q: How do you see the future population data linkage?
A: The future looks like it will be as exciting, interesting, and challenging (hopefully mostly in good ways) as the past. There is so much potential with data linkage given new technologies, federated systems, and emerging data sources. It’s really important to get all aspects of population data science right, including for example the commitment to public involvement, as well as to inclusion, diversity, equity, accessibility, and supporting Indigenous data sovereignty. There is so much opportunity, and I’d love to see, and be part of, more international research collaborations.