Services across the full research lifecycle
Whether you're scoping a grant or finalizing an analysis, PRDS meets you where you are. Four connected services take a study from a first feasibility question to defensible, publishable results — all within Alberta's data governance framework.
Research Design & Feasibility
Before a single record is pulled, we help you find out whether your question can be answered — and how to answer it well. Our team runs feasibility assessments for secondary data use and consults on the choices that shape a strong, fundable study.
- Feasibility assessments for secondary use of existing health data
- Consultation on research questions, methodology & analytical plans
- Sample-size and power considerations for administrative data
- Grant application support, including a Letter of Support confirming feasibility
Planning your grant? A Letter of Support confirms the data feasibility of your project for funders. Allow at least two weeks for us to review and prepare it.
- Which datasets can answer this question?
- Is the cohort large enough to detect an effect?
- What are the coverage windows and known caveats?
- What's a realistic timeline and analytic plan?
Records are extracted, linked at the patient level, and de-identified before release — inside the AHS firewall, under your executed agreements.
Data Access & Linkage
PRDS can help you access most health databases across Alberta and link them to answer questions that no single source can. We handle the extraction, deterministic linkage, and cohort construction so your team receives an analysis-ready, de-identified dataset.
- Access to most Alberta health databases, including Connect Care
- Cross-database linkage at the patient level to build complete cohorts
- Cohort definition & extraction scoped to your ethics approval
- De-identified data release via secure protocols
Data Management & Tools
Good analysis rests on well-managed data. We help teams build the databases and research tools that keep a study's data organized, validated, and secure throughout its lifecycle — from first capture to final archive.
- Study database development for structured, auditable capture
- Research tool creation tailored to your protocol and workflow
- Data cleaning, validation, and quality-assurance pipelines
- Secure stewardship aligned with your data-handling agreement
- Every variable defined and documented
- Consistent coding across sites and years
- Reproducible pipelines you can re-run
- An audit trail from source to analysis file
Data Science & Analysis
Our master's- and PhD-trained analysts don't just deliver a table — they partner on the analysis. From coding algorithms that define your outcomes to the models that estimate them, we help you produce results you can defend in peer review.
- Data science & statistical analysis for administrative and clinical data
- ICD coding-algorithm development to operationalize conditions & outcomes
- Algorithm validation against reference standards
- Clinical event adjudication support for outcome ascertainment
Built for patient-oriented research
PRDS works with investigators and teams across the research ecosystem in Alberta and the Northwest Territories.
University researchers
Faculty and trainees at Alberta's universities designing secondary-data and linkage studies, with partners provincial and national.
Health-system teams
Clinician-scientists and program teams within the health system asking evaluation and learning-health-system questions.
Patient-oriented teams
Studies that engage patients and communities as partners, connected through the broader AbSPORU network of support.
Let's scope your study together.
Submit a service request and we'll assess feasibility, identify the right datasets, and map the path to your analysis-ready cohort.