Multi-Provincial Surveillance Systems for Post-COVID-19 Condition and Outcomes (MSPCo)

The Challenge:

Long COVID continues to affect thousands of Canadians. Many people experience symptoms like fatigue, brain fog, and shortness of breath, which persist long after the initial infection. These lingering effects can seriously impact quality of life and put pressure on the healthcare system. 

Some groups are more affected with severe symptoms compared to others, including:  

  • People with chronic health conditions  
  • Those who had severe COVID-19 illness
  • Communities facing systemic barriers to care 

Despite this, many people with long COVID remain undiagnosed or underreported especially among children, youth, and equity-deserving populations who are historically underrepresented in health data. A better understanding of who is affected and how they access care is needed to improve prevention, diagnosis, and management strategies. 

Our Project:

We are building a coordinated, evidence-based surveillance system to: 

Identifying Adults, Children, and Youth with PCC
Cross-Provincial Collaboration
Understanding Risk Factors, Outcomes, and Health System Impact

This work is led by our research team based in British Columbia, in partnership with research teams in Ontario and Manitoba

Our Goals

Develop validated algorithms to identify adults, children, and youth with PCC using administrative, clinical, and survey data
Understand the burden of PCC across provinces, including prevalence, risk factors, and health outcomes
Engage people with lived and living experience (PWLLE) throughout the research process.
Mobilize findings into actionable, accessible tools and resources for public health, healthcare systems, and communities.

Our Approach

Identifying Adults, Children, and Youth with Long COVID

We are using surveys and machine learning to find patterns in health data and identify individuals living with long COVID.

Cross-Provincial Collaboration

We are collaborating with the Long COVID Web and research teams in Ontario and Manitoba.

Understanding Risk Factors, Outcomes, and Health System Impact

We are conducting population-level analyses to understand who is affected by PCC and how they interact with healthcare systems. We are analyzing:

  • Who is most at risk
  • How people with long COVID access healthcare services
  • Long-term outcomes and effects
  • Relationship between COVID-19 and chronic diseases
  • The role and impact of vaccination on reducing long COVID risk
  • Broader economic burden

Community Engagement

We are actively engaging communities through health fairs, social media, and flyers to improve the diversity and representativeness of PCC data.

Wastewater Surveillance

We are using wastewater data to estimate true COVID-19 infection rates and long COVID rates, which will improve long-term surveillance systems

Sharing what we learn

We are committed to ensuring our findings are accessible through:

  • An interactive online dashboard of PCC prevalence
  • Lay summaries and infographics
  • Peer-reviewed publications

All materials are co-developed with interest-holders and will be available in French.

Funders