Connect Care
New Data Disclosure Agreement (DDA) Process for Researchers requiring access to Connect Care
Completion of a Data Disclosure Agreement (DDA) is required for any researcher seeking to access Connect Care (view-only or write-access) for purposes of research. Alberta Health Services (AHS) is the sole custodian for Connect Care and access requires an AHS DDA, regardless of whether the study is conducted at a Covenant site.
Effective April 1st, 2023, if the ethics board of record is the Health Research Ethics Board (HREB), researchers are required to create a NACTRC (ENCAPS) account in order to initiate, complete, sign and submit an AHS DDA.
Instructions for requesting Connect Care access if board of record is HREB:
- Include AHS in addition to Covenant Health on the ethics application under ARISE - 1.5, 2.0 Research Locations and Other Approvals as this is what triggers review by AHS Health Systems Access.
- The PI and any study team members supporting the application for Connect Care will need to create a NACTRC account.
- The study team uploads the study protocol to NACTRC [ideally this is completed prior to ethics approval].
- Once the protocol is uploaded in NACTRC’s system and ethics approval is received, the PI and/or Study Coordinator listed on the file will receive an email from NACTRC with directions to complete the HSA QSET intake form. If intake form is not received within 1 week of ethics approval, contact research.administration@ahs.ca to initiate the processes.
- Once a completed QSET is received, an HSA Advisor will review the form and send a Data Disclosure Agreement for the PI to sign.
If you have questions about the instructions, please contact nactrc@encaps.ca for support. NACTRC will provide training sessions to new users.
If the ethics board of record is either the Conjoint Health research Ethics Board (CHREB) or the Health Research Ethics Board of Alberta (HREBA), a process for DDA is currently in development. Any researcher applying for operational/administrative approval through Covenant, will receive assistance with an AHS DDA in the interim; as of course will researchers applying through AHS Health Systems Access (HSA). Stay tuned for a further announcement and instructions in this regard.