​OBI funds and manages five Integrated Discovery Programs
These pan-Ontario programs take a different approach to research that spans many disciplines and brings together a diverse group of stakeholders including researchers, clinicians, industry partners, and patients and their advocates.
The programs collect various types of data, including genetic, molecular, imaging and behavioural, which are stored on OBI’s state-of-the-art informatics platform, Brain-CODE. By establishing a common approach to how data are collected, standardized assessments allow data to be shared across the province. With in-depth information on individuals with a specific disorder, researchers are taking a new look at the root causes among diverse disorders. This approach is part of a province-wide system where clinical and research data are gathered and kept in a comparable format, allowing for research and discovery within and between disorders. The approach is hypothesis-driven, yet allows exploratory, curiosity-driven research.Â