Tuesday June 30, 2020

Vocantas, a knowledge-rich forerunner in automated survey technology, is working with the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging (CLSA), a national research platform on health and aging based at McMaster University that involves more than 50,000 participants across 10 provinces. The CLSA is led by lead principal investigator Parminder Raina of McMaster University, and co-principal investigators Christina Wolfson of McGill University and Susan Kirkland of Dalhousie University, along with a national team of researchers.

“By using Vocantas’ technology and services, the CLSA has been able to expedite the data collection process and quickly gathering information on the symptoms of COVID-19 and the impacts of the pandemic on older adults across Canada,” said Raina, a professor in the Department of Health Research Methods, Evidence, and Impact at McMaster and the scientific director of the McMaster Institute for Research on Aging.

Over a six-month period, the CLSA COVID-19 study will collect weekly, biweekly and monthly data from its participants through online and telephone surveys to gain a comprehensive picture of the spread and impact of the pandemic. Vocantas offers a unique automated phone outreach survey capability. Unlike paper surveys or manual calls made one at a time, the automated Intelligent Voice Recognition survey can call thousands of people each week, expediting the process of gaining quick and accurate results. The results are tracked in real-time and provided back to CLSA through a secure portal to ensure participant confidentiality and security.

“We are thrilled to help CLSA achieve its mandate for research on Canada’s aging adults. Leveraging the capabilities of our Intelligent Voice Recognition solution, our partners collect accurate, reliable and unbiased survey data in the most cost and time efficient manner,” says Gary Hannah, CEO Vocantas. “Using technology to speed the investigation of COVID-19’s impact on our aging population will benefit us all.”