Research Advancement through Cohort Cataloguing and Harmonization (ReACH)

More and more Canadians are affected by chronic diseases such as cancer, cardiovascular disease, chronic obstructive lung disease, diabetes and mental illnesses. Many of these conditions have their origins in early life (conception, pregnancy, infancy and childhood) and a number of very good Canadian pregnancy and birth cohort studies have been implemented to explore hypotheses related to such Developmental Origins of Health and Disease (DOHaD). However, there is general agreement that the research community could get more out of existing cohort resources. In addition, cohort investigators recognize that individual studies often do not have the statistical power, specific data items, or appropriate design needed to fully support the current and upcoming needs of cutting-edge research. For example, even the largest and best-designed cohorts can often only generate enough participants to detect the most important relative risks, investigate relatively common health and social issues, and provide limited potential to explore how environments interact with genetic factors to influence health. To address these issues and speed up discovery, more and more stakeholders are calling for a shift in the manner we conduct our science. Enabling timely access to research data and samples, increasing potential to share and integrate data across cohorts and promoting a multidisciplinary and collaborative approach to research are major assets of this new path. The ReACH initiative (Research Advancement through Cohort Cataloguing and Harmonization) responds to this demand by providing resources (comprehensive web-based catalogue and harmonization platform) to the Canadian research community to optimize the use of existing Canadian cohort data and samples, and leverage national and international DOHaD research collaborations.