The BrainHealth Databank: A Systems Approach to Data-Driven Mental Health Care and Research

Jose Arturo Santisteban^1*David Rotenberg¹Stefan Kloiber^2,3Marta Maslej¹Adeel Ansari¹Bahar Amani^3,4Darren Courtney^3,4Farhat Farrokhi⁵Natalie Freeman⁶Masooma Hassan⁶Lucia Kwan⁶Mindaugas Mozuraitis⁵Michael Lau¹Natalia Potapova¹Farhad Qureshi¹Nicole Schoer¹Nelson Shen^1,6Joanna Yu¹Noelle Coombe⁶Kimberly Hunter^2,7Peter Selby^2,3Nicole Thomson^8,9Damian Jankowicz^2,8Sean Hill^1,2*

• ¹Krembil Centre for Neuroinformatics (KCNI), Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH), Toronto, Canada
• ²Campbell Family Mental Health Research Institute, Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, Toronto, Canada
• ³Department of Psychiatry, Temerty Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
• ⁴Cundill Centre for Child and Youth Depression, Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH), Toronto, Canada
• ⁵Data & Insights, Information Management Group, Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH), Toronto, Canada
• ⁶The Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
• ⁷Safehaven, Toronto, Canada
• ⁸Institute of Health Policy Management and Evaluation, Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
• ⁹Grand River Hospital, Kitchener, Ontario, Canada

Mental health care is undermined by fragmented data collection, as incomplete datasets can compromise treatment efficacy and research. The BrainHealth Databank (BHDB) at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) establishes the governance and infrastructure for a Learning Mental Health System that integrates digital tools, measurement-based care, artificial intelligence (AI), and open science to deliver personalized, data-driven care. Central to the BHDB's approach is its comprehensive governance framework, which actively engages clinicians, researchers, data scientists, privacy and ethics experts, and patient and family partners. This codesigned approach ensures that digital health technologies are deployed ethically, securely, and effectively within clinical settings. By aligning data collection with clinical and research goals and harmonizing over 12 million data points from 33,000 patient trajectories, the BHDB enhances data quality, enables real-time decision support, and fosters continuous improvement. The BHDB provides a model for integrating AI and digital tools into mental health care, as well as research data collection, analyses, storage, and sharing through the BHDB Portal (https://bhdb.camh.ca).