University of Waterloo joins a national consortium to build a Synthetic Data Network for health
The University of Waterloo is part of a cross‑Canada consortium creating a Synthetic Data Network (SDN) to produce synthetic health datasets that retain statistical properties without personal identifiers. The project received $900,000 from the Digital Health Innovation Fund; partners will contribute $3.6M. Initial work will focus on lung cancer datasets.
The SDN will generate computer‑generated patient datasets that mirror statistical patterns of real records while preventing re‑identification. Waterloo contributes technical architecture and governance leadership. Partners include McGill University Health Centre, Princess Margaret/University Health Network, University of New Brunswick, Canadian Personalized Healthcare Innovation Network, MDClone Canada and ZS Associates, with support from CIHI and the NRC. The Digital Health Innovation Fund awarded $900,000 and partners plan to pool $3.6M to establish the network. Researchers will pilot methods on lung cancer data and assess scalability for broader health‑system use.