Agenda OHDSI Sweden Symposium 2025

The adoption of OMOP is accelerating across the world, now is a great opportunity for Sweden to jump on the train, and the global life science community welcomes us.

Welcome to join the OMOP 4 Sweden movement!

Why have we organized this event?

Swedish health data is not leveraged to the extend it should, we want to change that! We owe it to our patients, to our healthcare staff and to our society.
More people need to learn about OMOP, an open community-driven standard with free open-source tools that avoid vendor lock-in and enable reproducible analytics worldwide.
To demonstrate how federated analytics works: data stays local, queries travel, enabling international collaboration while protecting privacy.
To showcase concrete examples of real healthcare delivery, research and innovation already powered by OMOP.
To show how OMOP complements existing health data standards (openEHR, FHIR, SNOMED CT) by providing the analytical layer.
To position OMOP in relation to Sweden’s strategic priorities: EHDS, national life science strategy, key strategic initiatives and investments in registries and digital health.
To build engagement and momentum for national adoption by highlighting opportunities for researchers, healthcare providers, government, and industry to collaborate.

Wednesday Nov 5

08:15-09:00

Arrival and registration

09:00-09:15

Introduction

Christian Högberg, Host and moderator, OMOP 4 SWEDEN! leader, Passion 2 Improve Sweden

09:15-10:30

The OMOP Common Data Model & OHDSI (The Observational Health Data Sciences & Informatics)

The Journey of OHDSI

Where have we been and where can we go together?

» Patrick Ryan, The Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies of Johnson & Johnson, Columbia University, OHDSI International

What is OMOP and OHDSI? User groups and use-cases? What are some of the OHDSI tools and methods?

» Renske Los, Erasmus MC, OHDSI Europe, OHDSI NL

» Jordan Kane, Stiftelsen Chalmers Industriteknik

10:30-11:15

An international perspective of OMOP: Experiences, assets and solutions up for grabs for Sweden

The European Health Data & Evidence Network (EHDEN) Project & Foundation

» Carlos Díaz, EHDEN Foundation, CEO Synapse Research Management Partners

The Data Analysis & Real World Interrogation Network (DARWIN-EU)

» Representative from EMA DARWIN-EU

Harnessing Unstructured Data and Hospital Interoperability - The potential of next-generation platforms in transforming patient recruitment

» Mats Sundgren, i-HD, The European Institute for Innovation Through Health Data, IOMED

11:15-12:00

What can Sweden leverage and learn from other nations working with OMOP?

OHDSI Europe and OHDSI Netherlands

» Renske Los, Erasmus MC

OHDSI Finland

» Eric Fey, TBC, Helsinki University Hospital, Helsinki University

OHDSI UK

» Alex Knight, Health Data Research UK

OHDSI Belgium

» Freija Descamps, edenceHealth NV

OHDSI Norway

» Espen Enerly, Norwegian Institute of Public Health, Cancer Registry of Norway

12:00-13:00

Lunch break

13:00-13:30

How does OMOP and OHDSI fit into the Swedish ecosystem of life science and healthcare?

The voices, experiences and recommendations from Sweden’s early OMOP adopters.

» Jonas Wastesson, Karolinska Institutet, Dep. Medical Epidemiology and Biostatistics

» Niklas Norén, WHO’s Uppsala Monitoring Center

13:30-15:00

Case studies

How RWE can support pharmacovigilance signal management, and OMOP’s role in removing barriers

» Niklas Norén, WHO’s Uppsala Monitoring Center

Case from Finland (TBD)

» Kimmo Porkka, Helsinki University and Eric Fey, Helsinki University Hospital

Development of HEARTwise Machine Learning framework to predict patient deterioration using existing OMOP CDM NEWS variables

» Freija Descamps & Lars Halvorsen, edenceHealth (representing Jan Yperman Hospital & Antwerp University Hospital)

National infastructure for secondary use of health data. Experiences from England.

» Jake Marshall, Imperial College London

Value from Nordic Health Data (VALO): A Hands-On Case Study of a pan-European Cancer Research Project Using OMOP

» Åslaug Helland, University of Oslo, Oslo University Hospital

15:00-15:30

Fika break

15:30-16:15

The Swedish Health Data Ecosystem

Panel conversation

Moderator: Christian Högberg, OMOP 4 SWEDEN! leader, Passion 2 Improve Sweden

What could more access to, and use of standardized health data mean for Sweden, its national life science strategy and our strategic initiatives?

» Michel Silvestri, Swedish eHealth Agency

» Päivi Östling, Karolinska Institutet

» Sofie Gustafsson, Pfizer

» Amy Leval, Johnson & Johnson

» Katrine Riklund, Umeå Universitet & EUCAIM

» Sebastiaan Meijer, KTH & Health Data Sweden

» Carl Jarnling, IQVIA Nordics

16:15-17:00

OMOP in the international health informatics standardisation landscape

Panel conversation

Moderator: Sabine Koch, Introduction and panel moderator, Karolinska Institutet

Is OMOP another important piece in the jigsaw-puzzle of international health data standards?

» Daniel Karlsson, Swedish eHealth Agency

» Åsa Skagerhult, OpenEHR Sweden and Region Östergötland

» Niklas Eklöv, National Board of Health and Welfare (Snomed-CT)

17:00-17:15

Wrap-up with final words

Christian Högberg, Host and moderator, OMOP 4 SWEDEN! leader, Passion 2 Improve Sweden

17:15-18:00

After event networking and conversations

Agenda OHDSI Sweden Symposium 2025

Location