Statistical Analysis Centre (SAC)

The SAC, housed at McGill University (McG)(Dr. Wolfson, Director), will be the analytic nexus of the CLSA, providing secure data storage, user management and statistical collaboration to the CLSA researchers and other users of the CLSA research data platform. The CLSA research involves the collection, management and analysis of massive amounts of data and the computing infrastructure will be used to facilitate data acquisition, management and analysis using the terminal servers and large amounts of disk space.

Computer methods of statistical analysis will be required at several stages of the project, all of which rely on memory and speed. Primary data capture and validation will be the responsibility of the NCC, and the SAC will work in concert with the NCC to create standard operating protocols for the transfer, access, and usage of the data.

Databases will be transferred to the SAC for backup and analysis. The SAC staff will manage the linkage of the CLSA primary data to existing health administrative and environmental databases. An important role for the centre will be to prepare data subsets for statistical analysis and to provide statistical support for CLSA researchers.

One of the underlying principles of the CLSA is that data be made available to the research community as soon as it is feasible while protecting the privacy and confidentiality of participants and the SAC will coordinate data access and utilization for researchers via a private and secure web-hosting architecture. Ease of access and timely use of the data are critical to the success of CLSA. The SAC will also provide the catalyst for the creation of a nationwide CLSA network of statisticians.