In the first half of this year, over 400 new cases of syphilis were documented in BC, highlighting how sexually transmitted and bloodborne infections (STBBIs), including syphilis, hepatitis B, hepatitis C, and HIV, continue to contribute to serious health care challenges in Canada. Delivery of effective interventions tailored to address the needs of the people at the highest risk of infection is critical.
Through his role with the CIHR Pan-Canadian Network for HIV & STBBI Clinical Trials Research (CTN+), Advancing Health scientist Dr. Naveed Janjua is leading an innovative initiative focused on developing capacity in real-world effectiveness trials for STBBIs. The Skills Training for Real-world InterVention Evaluation (STRIVE) project addresses a significant gap by training personnel skilled in advanced analytical methods for real-world data, with an emphasis on equity awnd community engagement. The project was recently funded by CIHR for $800,000 over the next four years.
We spoke to Dr. Janjua and Dr. Judy Needham, a Senior Project Manager at Advancing Health, to understand the broader goals of the project and how it will improve care in theory and in practice.
The big picture
“At its heart, the goal is increased capacity to generate real-world evidence,” said Dr. Needham, who is supporting this work through her role as Project Manager for the CTN+ BC & Yukon Regional Team. “It’s about increasing the number of people, researchers, and communities that are involved with real-world intervention evaluation studies.”
Real-world intervention evaluation studies refer to research that uses real-world data generated as part of routine medical care such as medical records, administrative health data, and prescriptions to evaluate the effectiveness and safety of interventions (drugs, vaccine, programs) in a broad and diverse population. For instance, comparing patient health data for two different treatments being used for a single disease can help discern which intervention is performing better.
STRIVE will include two cohorts of learners: One comprising academic trainees, clinical trainees, and early-career researchers (those within the first five years of an academic appointment), and the other consisting of community participants.
“Our goal is to train people to use STBBI-related data in ways that allow them to identify specific populations and communities that may be impacted,” said Dr. Needham. “With community members, we want to support the development of skills and knowledge needed to work with health administrative data and partner with researchers. This type of research is different from research where we collect primary data and have control over what we measure and how we measure.”
“With STRIVE,” added Dr. Janjua, who is also Director of the UBC Centre for Disease Control, “we want community members to feel empowered to identify and ask research questions that directly impact them.”
For community trainees, the training will include a half-day joint introductory session (with academic trainees) followed by a one-and-a-half-day workshop tailored to community needs. Depending on response and demand, the team may organize additional seminars or offer mentorship opportunities.
Growing research capacity
STRIVE consists of a summer school, a monthly seminar series, as well as evaluation projects supervised by mentors. At the summer school, trainees will learn the fundamentals of real-world evaluation and explore questions such as how real-world data can be used to assess STBBI interventions, as well as the capabilities and limitations of using large datasets. The learning objectives will focus on increased capacity for analysing current STBBI interventions using datasets and using that data to improve public health through targeted interventions for communities facing health disparities.
Speaking to the complexity of the training modules and courses, Dr. Janjua added, “The week-long course will serve as a primer on methodology of working with large health administrative datasets to evaluate the safety and effectiveness of STBBI interventions.”
“In addition to didactic learning, we’re also setting up a Data Lab, where the trainees will be able to get practical experience of using data to design studies.”
Additionally, trainees will participate in seminars throughout their learning, which will be exploratory, examining advanced methods in real-world evaluation, current trends such as AI, and case presentations. They will also undertake a four-month placement, working on a research project under the guidance of a mentor.
To that end, the team is currently recruiting researchers and clinicians across the country who are interested in providing mentorship to trainees.
Filling gaps at the regional and national levels
In British Columbia, and across Canada, access to treatment and prevention for STBBIs varies across urban and rural centres. Working with real-world data will help understand disease burden as well as care access gaps across the province. Using real-world data to analyse care interventions allows researchers to advocate for and provide targeted health care and community-specific interventions.
“Using large data sets like this can really help identify gaps in treatment and care,” said Dr. Janjua. “It can help us narrow down factors like geographic isolation and lack of resources, which may be hindering the success of current interventions. And then allow us to work with health and policy makers to fine-tune those interventions and improve care outcomes.”
“I am excited to launch STRIVE so we can equip trainees with the necessary tools to close these gaps,” he added.
Planning stage and growing pains
The very first STRIVE cohort will come on board in the summer 2026. In the meantime, the team has much to accomplish. They’re currently working to establish the many committees that will make up the functioning of the project, which includes the Executive Committee, the Steering Committee, the Recruitment Committee, and the committee for training and curriculum.
The team is working on designing the curriculum, finalizing the selection criteria for trainees, community members and mentors, as well as other administrative tasks.
“The biggest challenge we need to overcome is the ambitious timeline, and ensuring that we’re going to be ready for the summer,” said Dr. Needham.
Once the project welcomes its first cohort, over the next four years, it will contribute to the CTN+ mandate of developing increased national capacity for STBBI research in Canada, along with the four other regional training programs supported by the CTN+. With a national focus, the project will also emphasize an EDI-driven approach, with diverse representation of people, regions, and experiences.
The team also hopes that the evaluation of real-world data interventions will kickstart new projects within the CTN+. “Our work on this project will train highly skilled scientist and community to generate real-world evidence using real-world data to bridge the gaps in prevention, care and treatment of STBBIs in Canada and beyond,” concluded Dr. Janjua.
