2019 OHDSI SYMPOSIUM

Project SummaryThe Observational Health Data Sciences and Informatics (or OHDSI, pronounced 'Odyssey') program is a multi-stakeholder, interdisciplinary collaborative formed to bring out the value of health data through large-scaleanalytics. All our solutions are open-source. OHDSI has established an international network of researchers andobservational health databases with a central coordinating center housed at Columbia University's Departmentof Biomedical Informatics. As a collaborative, one of our greatest strengths comes from working together withother stakeholders across the broader healthcare community. By connecting with those on the frontlines ofmedical decision making, we can ensure our goals are aligned with the needs of patients, clinicians andregulatory agencies. To engage with this broader audience, we propose holding a symposium with the objectiveof showcasing OHDSI's achievements and offering hands-on training for OHDSI tools and methods.Furthermore, the symposium will provide a forum to discuss challenges facing large-scale observational researchwith a broad range of stakeholders, and request external feedback on how OHDSI collaboration could furtherfoster an ecosystem designed to satisfy the needs of the healthcare community. This symposium will be acontinuation of our previous symposia which has been offered annually since 2015 and hosted a wide range ofstakeholder groups such as patients, clinicians, researchers, industry and government. At the event, OHDSIcollaborators will present OHDSI's vision and demonstrate our commitment to open science by sharing resultsfrom our collaborative studies, carried out across our international research community. Presentations will beinteractive and provide participants tangible examples of how observational data has been used to generate realworld evidence about disease natural history and the effects of medical interventions. The symposium will giveparticipants an opportunity to provide input on the priorities and future direction for how the OHDSI communityshould advance the research, development, and applications of observational research. This input will ensurethe evidence generated within the OHDSI community is designed to answer the questions most important topatients, payers, providers and policy makers.