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The Journey Newsletter (April 2025)
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Standardized vocabularies and data fitness were core themes for OHDSI in March. Our vocabulary team provided an update on a major refresh, and we hosted multiple sessions on ensuring data quality for observational research. Learn more about both, as well as the growing Evidence Network, the developing Book of OHDSI 2.0, and plenty more in our latest newsletter. #JoinTheJourney
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Podcast: Vocabularies and Data Fitness
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Vocabularies & data fitness have been hot topics in the community over the last month. In the latest On The Journey podcast, Patrick Ryan and Craig Sachson discuss the recent refresh of the OHDSI Standardized Vocabularies, and they highlight the importance of downloading the updated version. They also discuss recent updates on the Evidence Network and how the Data Diagnostics tool impacts community research. (if image does not appear, please click view this email in your browser)
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Where Have We Been?
• The Winter 2025 vocabulary refresh was recently released and includes several domain changes, newly added concepts, concept changes and more. Learn more about this and check out the presentation later in this newsletter.
• Our Phenotype Phebruary team, which included over 40 collaborators, built 165 cohort definitions and wrote the clinical descriptions for 13 studies. The team produced three Atlas and CohortDiagnostics demos and nearly completed the phenotyping for 85% of our clinical guideline studies. Thank you to everybody involved; check out the full final update.
Where Are We Now?
• Christian Reich and Sarah Seager are leading an effort to publish a second edition of the Book of OHDSI, which will include updates to previous text and new paragraphs/chapters. This work is taking place within the Education workgroup; if you would like to join this effort, please sign up here.
• April community calls will feature several useful tutorials for our ongoing guideline-driven network studies, starting with updates on Strategus, an R package for coordinating and executing analytics using HADES modules, on April 8. Please visit our community calls page for a schedule and all past recordings.
• Our fourth annual DevCon will be held Friday, April 25, from 9 am - 2 pm ET. This virtual session continues to connect our global open-source community so that we can learn about recent updates and discuss ways to continue enhancing the future of OHDSI open-source software. More agenda information and the meeting link is available later in this newsletter.
Where Are We Going?
• The 2025 Global Symposium will be held Oct. 7-9 at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in New Brunswick, NJ, USA. Agenda and registration information will be shared when available. The submission deadline to take part in the Global Symposium Collaborator Showcase is July 1.
• Registration is open for the Europe Symposium, which will be held July 5-7 in the “Old Prison” building of Hasselt University in Hasselt, Belgium. More information is available later in this newsletter.
• The #OHDSISocialShowcase continues this month on our LinkedIn, Twitter/X and Instagram feeds. Please make sure you are following OHDSI on our social channels to receive daily updates on the research presented by our community.
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New Procedures, Lab Tests & Drugs, Better Mappings Highlight Latest Vocabulary Refresh
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Thanks to the tremendous work from our Vocabulary Team, the 2025 Winter Refresh happened in late February and was discussed during the March 4 community call (see link below). This refresh was highlighted by new procedures, lab tests and more than 35,000 new NDC drugs, better mappings for multiple conditions, and easier concept sets with expanded measurement, drug and procedure hierarchies.
Learn more through the video presentation or the detailed release notes below.
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Save The Date:
All Global Symposium Collaborator Showcase Submissions Will Be Due July 1, 2025!
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One of the most anticipated aspects of OHDSI symposia is the collaborator showcase, and we can't wait to learn more about the wide breadth of research happening around the world. The 2025 Global Symposium will be held once again at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in New Brunswick, NJ, on Oct. 7-9, and we hope you will consider sharing your work with the community.
The 2025 Global Symposium Collaborator Showcase will feature posters, software demos and lightning talks, and all brief reports will be due to the scientific review community by July 1, 2025. More information on the symposium, including abstract submission and registration links, will be available soon.
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DevCon to Spotlight Open-Source Innovation, Sustainability, and the Future
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The OHDSI community will host DevCon 2025, the fourth annual gathering dedicated to advancing open-source development and collaboration, on April 25 within our Teams environment (9 am – 2 pm ET). This event will bring together developers and innovators to explore the latest tools, technologies, and strategies shaping the future of open-source software in healthcare and data science. The event kicks off with an exciting series of talks showcasing cutting-edge OHDSI projects, including updates on core infrastructure, cohort construction, and novel integrations with modern data platforms.
Engage in a dynamic developer dialogue on key topics such as DevOps, DBT, and the growing role of large language models in open-source development. This interactive session will provide insights from industry leaders on emerging trends, challenges, and opportunities in the evolving open-source landscape.
The day concludes with a panel on building sustainable open-source ecosystems, where experts will share their experiences in fostering long-term collaboration, innovation, and community-driven development. As the open-source movement continues to grow, understanding sustainable models is more critical than ever. Don’t miss this opportunity to connect with fellow developers, exchange ideas, and contribute to the future of open-source technology at OHDSI DevCon 2025. Please use the links below to learn more and join the session.
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Dr. Daniel Morales is a General Practitioner and Epidemiologist affiliated with the Division of Population Health and Genomics at the University of Dundee. His research primarily focuses on the safety and effectiveness of medicines, leveraging his clinical and regulatory experience to inform epidemiological studies. Beyond his academic role, Daniel contributes to regulatory science as a Senior Clinical Epidemiologist within the Data Analytics Taskforce at the European Medicines Agency (EMA).
Within the OHDSI community, Daniel has played a pivotal role in advancing collaborative research. He led the ICARIUS study, which demonstrated no increased risk of COVID-19 diagnosis or complications for users of angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors and angiotensin receptor blockers antihypertensive medications. Daniel has helped build both the EHDEN and DARWIN EU initiatives in Europe. He has also been active in the LEGEND initiative, and he presented on the Comparative Safety of GLP1-RA and the Risk of Thyroid Tumors as part of the LEGEND plenary at the 2024 Global Symposium.
In the latest edition of the Collaborator Spotlight, Daniel discusses his career journey, the progression of both EHDEN and DARWIN EU, how OHDSI can inform regulatory decision-making, and plenty more.
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Cohen I, Diao Z, Goyal P, Gupta A, Hawk K, Malcom B, Malicki C, Sharma D, Sweeney B, Weiner SG, Venkatesh A, Taylor RA. Mapping Emergency Medicine Data to the Observational Medical Outcomes Partnership Common Data Model: A Gap Analysis of the American College of Emergency Physicians Clinical Emergency Data Registry. J Am Coll Emerg Physicians Open. 2025 Jan 10;6(1):100016. doi: 10.1016/j.acepjo.2024.100016. PMID: 40012646; PMCID: PMC11853007.
Chai Y, Lam ICH, Man KKC, Hayes JF, Wan EYF, Li X, Chui CSL, Lau WCY, Lin X, Yin C, Fan M, Chan EW, Wong ICK, Luo H. Psychiatric and neuropsychiatric sequelae of COVID-19 within 2 years: a multinational cohort study. BMC Med. 2025 Mar 7;23(1):144. doi: 10.1186/s12916-025-03952-z. PMID: 40055683; PMCID: PMC11887073.
Spotnitz M, Giannini J, Ostchega Y, Goff SL, Anandan LP, Clark E, Litwin TR, Berman L. Assessing the Data Quality Dimensions of Partial and Complete Mastectomy Cohorts in the All of Us Research Program: Cross-Sectional Study. JMIR Cancer. 2025 Mar 11;11:e59298. doi: 10.2196/59298. PMID: 40068169; PMCID: PMC11918980.
Dhaenens BAE, Moinat M, Didden EM, Ammour N, Oostenbrink R, Rijnbeek P. Identifying patients with neurofibromatosis type 1 related optic pathway glioma using the OMOP CDM. Eur J Med Genet. 2025 Mar 17;75:105011. doi: 10.1016/j.ejmg.2025.105011. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 40107446.
Lai LY, Sakalis V, Chatzichristos C, de la Parra I, Steinbeisser C, Golozar A, de Meulder B, Hijazy A, Snijder R, Feng Q, Falconer T, Cornford P, Bjartell A, Evans-Axelsson S, N'Dow J, Gandaglia G, Rivas JG. Baseline characteristics and clinical outcomes of prostate cancer patients on delayed palliative management: a PIONEER analysis based on big data. Cent European J Urol. 2024;77(3):403-410. doi: 10.5173/ceju.2024.83. Epub 2024 Aug 18. PMID: 40115485; PMCID: PMC11921962.
Delange B, Popoff B, Séité T, Lamer A, Parrot A. LinkR: An open source, low-code and collaborative data science platform for healthcare data analysis and visualization. Int J Med Inform. 2025 Mar 10;199:105876. doi: 10.1016/j.ijmedinf.2025.105876. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 40121766.
Kimura E, Kawakami Y, Inoue S, Okajima A. A dataset for mapping the Japanese drugs to RxNorm standard concepts. Data Brief. 2025 Feb 21;59:111418. doi: 10.1016/j.dib.2025.111418. PMID: 40124300; PMCID: PMC11926709.
Katsch F, Hussein R, Stamm T, Duftschmid G. Converting Health Level 7 Clinical Document Architecture (CDA) documents to Observational Medical Outcomes Partnership Common Data Model (OMOP CDM) by leveraging CDA Template definitions. JAMIA Open. 2025 Mar 26;8(2):ooaf022. doi: 10.1093/jamiaopen/ooaf022. PMID: 40151318; PMCID: PMC11945294.
Adams MCB, Perkins ML, Hudson C, Madhira V, Akbilgic O, Ma D, Hurley RW, Topaloglu U. Breaking Digital Health Barriers: Development and Validation of an LLM-Based Tool for Automated OMOP Mapping. J Med Internet Res. 2025 Mar 27. doi: 10.2196/69004. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 40146872.
Hribar MR, Cai CX, Goetz KE, Hripcsak G. The OHDSI Network in Ophthalmology-The Promise of Observational Health Data. JAMA Ophthalmol. 2025 Mar 27. doi: 10.1001/jamaophthalmol.2025.0399. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 40146162.
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