Connecting brain and heart health through data innovation.
The Cardio-Neuro-Mind Data Platform (CNMDP) is a sophisticated tool designed to analyze, store and share large amounts of data to facilitate research, and ultimately, unravel the complex connections between the brain and the heart.
The platform is reshaping how we investigate mental, neurological and cardiovascular health, which are intrinsically linked and share risk factors.
Research shows a strong connection between the brain and the heart. Cardiac patients often experience psychiatric symptoms such as anxiety and depression, for example, and people with major depressive disorder, bipolar disorder and anxiety disorders often experience abnormalities in heart functions. Understanding these connections is crucial for developing innovative strategies for prevention, diagnosis and treatment. However, current medical practices often treat these conditions in isolation, even within the same individual; this fragmented approach hinders comprehensive care.
How it works
The CNMDP supports a range of data collection and facilitates sharing of research data with partner scientists. This collaborative approach allows researchers to tackle new questions more effectively by accessing data collected by their peers, with permission. By accelerating research on conditions such as depression, cognitive decline and heart failure, we are helping create better evidence-based diagnostic and therapeutic tools, and whole person-centered treatment models.
The CNMDP prioritizes robust data management, privacy and security. Our advanced systems ensure secure access for approved secondary data use, both internally and externally, with an unwavering commitment to privacy and security.
The team is developing an online portal that will serve as a centralized, user-friendly workspace to streamline access to data collection tools. It will support researchers throughout the data lifecycle, enabling users to navigate tools efficiently and centrally, generate curated multi-modal data cuts, as well as exploration of available datasets for secondary use.
Made possible through partnership
The CNMDP is developed and operated by The Royal, in partnership with the Centre for Addition and Mental Health (CAMH), with funding from the Canada Foundation for Innovation. The CNMDP is a partner in the University of Ottawa Brain-Heart Interconnectome initiative, specifically integrating with the ARCHIMEDES project, a national health research data platform.
For more information, contact CNMPD@theroyal.ca.
Support research
Donations are essential to the advancement of mental health research and the discovery of new, more impactful treatments for mental illness.
