An initiative from the funded study: Canadian Open Wastewater Surveillance Database
Wastewater Surveillance Research Group
CoVaRR-Net researchers have been helping to build the Public Health and Environmental Surveillance Open Data Model (PHES-ODM).
PHES-ODM is a dictionary and set of tools that support the collection and use of wastewater and environmental surveillance data, including data on the SARS-CoV-2 virus and its variants. The collaborative tool provides a singular and unified way to record and store data so that wastewater-based surveillance data and metadata can be compared and aggregated across different research teams and public health departments. Collaboration, via the model’s GitHub page, is being encouraged.
In Canada, the model has been adopted by the Public Health Agency of Canada and the Ontario Ministry of the Environment, Conservation and Parks.
As its second iteration nears completion, the European Union and other international partners have come on board and are prepared to store data using this model, including the EU Sewage Sentinel System for SARS-CoV-2 Digital European Exchange Platform.