Be the Cure is a provincial awareness campaign designed to educate Albertans about the importance of participating in clinical trials. Running for over five years, the campaign has reached across the province to create an engaged and informed population that understands the importance of clinical research. In addition, the associated health research database easily connects patients with research opportunities. As a result, Alberta has higher rates of participant uptake and faster trial recruitment timelines when compared to other provinces.

Connect Care is Alberta’s singular electronic medical records system, containing integrated health data for the entire provincial population (more than 4 million people). Based on the EPIC platform, this centralized system provides numerous advantages, including streamlined access to robust medical data, enhanced recruitment capabilities, and the ability to remotely monitor clinical trials conducted in the province.

The University of Calgary, the University of Alberta, and Alberta Health Services have jointly adopted the new provincial Clinical Trial Management System (CTMS). The OnCore CTMS enhances Alberta’s clinical trial infrastructure by increasing efficiencies in trial management. The new system enables increased capacity for additional studies, standardization and adoption of best practices, and improved study quality, budget management, and regulatory compliance because of automated processes.

The REB Exchange is an innovative technology platform that enables a single provincial ethics review for multi-site research conducted in Alberta. By providing a centralized, singular point of submission, the REB Exchange reduces study costs and increases efficiency by helping avoid duplication during the submission process, ensuring high quality reviews, and shortening study start-up times. It also allows for more efficient methods of reporting serious adverse events and reduces the need to engage multiple local research ethics boards.

Evidence that captures the impact of a process or technology on health outcomes outside of controlled clinical trials is highly valuable to pharmaceutical, biotechnology, and medical device manufacturers. The Alberta Real World Evidence Consortium allows for the analysis of key health data, including incidence and prevalence of disease in specific populations, treatment patterns such as sequencing, adherence, and persistence, safety monitoring, as well as comparative effectiveness and cost-effectiveness. This is of particular value to pragmatic clinical trials and pre-study planning efforts.