The MCC Network: an international collaboration for global health research

Abstract

Background and aim: Addressing global environmental threats requires research studies based on large epidemiological assessments covering multiple regions. Multi-centre studies offer an excellent framework for this purpose but present various methodological and logistical issues. This overview contribution illustrates the experience of the Multi-Country Multi-City (MCC) Collaborative Research Network, an international collaboration working on a global research program on the associations between environment, climate, and health. Methods: The MCC Network has established an international collaboration based on mutual contribution and data sharing. This partnership has led to the collection of one of the largest databases for environmental health studies, with daily time series of health outcomes and environmental indices from 1,044 locations within 50 countries in the period 1969-2020. A research protocol formalizes a flexible mode of collaboration that offers scientific independence in addressing a variety of research topics, while ensuring collective participation and control on the use of data. The research is supported by intense methodological developments that have provided state-of-the-art study design and statistical techniques. Results: The MCC Network has contributed key evidence on environmental health risks, with peer-reviewed publications in leading environmental, epidemiological and medical journals. The research scope of the collaboration spans from studies of the health risks of known risk factors such as air pollution and non-optimal temperature, to analyses of more specific environmental stressors such as wildfires and extreme weather events, to projections of health impacts under climate change scenarios. Conclusions: The research of the MCC Network has already provided an exceptional contribution to our understanding of environment-health associations and the impacts of climate change. The collaborative framework can be replicated to address other research questions in this area and beyond. Keywords: time series; pollution; temperature; climate change.