Manitoba Tomorrow Project

05/29/2026

🚭This Sunday, May 31, is World No To***co Day.

🫁Did you know that the link between smoking and lung cancer was established through a large-scale long-term study similar to the Manitoba Tomorrow Project?

The British Doctors Study led by Sir Richard Doll and Sir Austin Bradford Hill began in 1951. Doll and Hill sent a questionnaire to all registered British doctors, more than 40,000 of whom replied providing demographic information and outlining their smoking habits. Throughout 50 years of follow-up, Doll and Hill observed strong evidence of a direct link between smoking and mortality from lung cancer.

Similarly, the Manitoba Tomorrow Project is a longitudinal study, meaning the same participants will be followed over many years. By collecting data and biological samples (e.g., blood, urine, stool) from participants over time, longitudinal studies capture changes that occur following exposure to various risk factors (e.g., smoking, diet, physical activity, work-related hazards). Cancer and chronic diseases take a long time to develop, so longitudinal studies provide researchers with the ability to better understand how things that occurred years before a diagnosis contributed to the development of a disease. These discoveries could fuel improvements in disease prevention, detection, and treatment.

We believe the Manitoba Tomorrow Project has the potential to support groundbreaking health research for decades to come. Thank you for making this possible!

05/19/2026

📢Heads up Participant Feedback Group members.

📨The Manitoba Tomorrow Project’s (MTP) next Participant Feedback Group survey will arrive in your inbox this week! This survey is all about blood sample collection, and your feedback helps us to shape the process.

The Participant Feedback Group is made up of ~700 MTP participants who have chosen to provide more frequent feedback to the MTP through brief, emailed surveys on specific topics.
If you would like to take part in the Participant Feedback Group and be included in the next survey, please reach out to us by emailing [email protected].

05/15/2026

🩺This Sunday, May 17th is World Hypertension Day.

Hypertension is commonly referred to as high blood pressure, and it can pose serious health risks.

📋The Manitoba Tomorrow Project collects information about participants’ personal and family history of hypertension and if you’ve attended an in-person study appointment, you’ve likely had your blood pressure measured by a member of the MTP team. This information can provide context for a variety of health conditions and allows researchers to continue looking into the factors influencing blood pressure. In the future, this work will hopefully inform how to reduce the risk factors for hypertension, promoting better health for Manitobans.

For information about maintaining a healthy blood pressure, visit:

Hypertension Canada is the only Canadian organization dedicated solely to the prevention and control of hypertension (high blood pressure) and its complications.

05/11/2026

We just hit 10,000 HEAL study participants, and you helped make that happen! 🎉

Every survey you've filled out about what you ate and how you moved is a piece of a much bigger puzzle. Researchers can use this data to study cancer, heart disease, mental health, and more.

Your corner of Canada matters to this research. Thank you for showing up 👏 https://canpath.ca/2026/05/heal-study-10000-participant-milestone/

05/07/2026

Have you heard about ultra-processed foods in the news lately?

Ultra-processed foods have been linked to increased risk of Type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and obesity, they may also have mental health effects. But what are ultra-processed foods, exactly?

🍫Ultra-processed foods are made through extensive factory processing and contain ingredients you likely wouldn’t use in your own kitchen – things like preservatives, emulsifiers, gels, flavour enhancers, or artificial colours.

Many Canadians regularly consume ultra-processed foods. How might that be affecting our health?

🔎That’s where the Canada-wide Healthy Eating and Supportive Environments (HEAL) study comes in! By providing detailed 24-hour dietary intake information, HEAL participants in Manitoba and across the country are ensuring that researchers have the data they need to better understand how the food we eat affects our health over time.

04/30/2026

🥕🍎The Manitoba Tomorrow Project has an exciting announcement: the MTP’s National Coordinating Centre CanPath - Canadian Partnership for Tomorrow's Health has linked data from the Manitoba Tomorrow Project and its regional sister cohorts to the Canadian Food Environment Database.

The Canadian Food Environment Database, or Can-FED, provides information about the type, number, and location of food stores and restaurants in neighbourhoods across Canada, including:
• Grocery stores and superstores
• Convenience and corner stores
• Restaurants

We know that the food we eat affects our health, but what we eat depends on what is available, accessible, and affordable in the communities where we live and work. By combining Can-FED data with the detailed dietary information from the HEALthy Eating and Supportive Environments (HEAL) study, researchers will be able to explore how to encourage environments that support healthy food choices and therefore, better health.

Please click here to read the full article to learn more about the study’s progress:

The Canadian Food Environment Database (Can-FED) provides detailed, neighbourhood-level information about food outlets across Canada.

04/23/2026

🧬🔬✨Exciting new renovations are taking place in the Manitoba Tumour Bank, the lab where Manitoba Tomorrow Project samples are processed and stored.

🧪Our expert research technicians, Laurie and Susan, report that changes to their area have already made a positive impact on their workflow. The renovated space is more efficient and streamlined, allowing for faster processing of samples and smoother day-to-day operations. This dynamic new space not only boosts our team’s productivity today but also positions us to expand our research capability in the future, strengthening our ability to make meaningful research discoveries.

04/16/2026

🤝The MTP team would like to give a shout-out to the members of the Participant Advisory Committee (PAC) for a productive and inspiring meeting last week. PAC members and MTP staff gathered virtually on April 8th to review updated MTP communication materials, discuss results from the latest Participant Feedback Group survey, and provide feedback on the project’s new MTP Email Updates. We look forward to continuing our work together!

04/08/2026

🌟This week is Canadian Public Health Week! 🌟

👩‍⚕️Public health plays an essential role in Canadian healthcare, where many different public health agencies collaborate to protect and enhance the health of Canadians.

For example, if healthcare treats an elderly person after they have fallen, then public health seeks to understand why falls occur so that they can be prevented through measures such as safer flooring, improved lighting, or secure railings.

🔎The work of public health agencies is informed by research, including large studies like the Manitoba Tomorrow Project. Your participation today can inform the public health policies of tomorrow and help improve the health of people across Canada.

04/01/2026

Do you have friends or family in Saskatchewan?

Our regional sister cohort Healthy Future Sask has launched their largest ever recruitment effort. Healthy Future Sask is looking for 7,000 Saskatchewan residents ages 30-74 to sign up and help to shape a healthier future for the province of Saskatchewan!

With the addition of Saskatchewan our national coordinating centre CanPath - Canadian Partnership for Tomorrow's Health, has achieved representation from all 10 provinces with more than 330,000 participants and counting. This is an important step in achieving more complete representation for health research from across Canada.

If you or someone you know if a resident of Saskatchewan we encourage you to visit: https://healthyfuturesask.ca/ to learn more or sign up.

We wish Healthy Future Sask the very best on their mission to reach 7,000 participants.

Healthy Future Sask creates a platform and resource for fostering research in cancer and chronic disease prevention within the province.