The Columbia OHDSI Summer School provides health professionals, researchers, and industry practitioners with an immersive, hands-on training to working with real-world health data and generating real-world evidence (RWE). Participants will explore the types of healthcare data captured during routine clinical care—such as electronic health records and administrative claims—and learn how to standardize these data using the OMOP Common Data Model to support collaborative, distributed research as part of a data network.
Over the course of the week, participants will engage with three real-world analytic use cases:
Participants will be guided through the full RWE study lifecycle: from designing observational studies tailored to each use case, to applying open-source tools form the OHDSI community, and executing analyses across real-world data sources.
The curriculum combines foundational lectures on analytical methods with hands-on, interactive, faculty-led group exercises. In addition, participants will have dedicated time to develop and advance their own study concepts with personalized feedback and mentoring.
The Summer School is designed for individuals interested in learning how to design and execute observational database studies focused on clinical characterization, population-level estimation, and patient-level prediction using distributed real-world data networks. Participants will also learn how to assess the reliability and interpretability of real-world evidence.
The program is ideal for clinicians, data scientists, statisticians, epidemiologists, informaticians, and health policy researchers from academia, the pharmaceutical and medical technology industries, health systems, and government agencies.
Study design and implementation will use OHDSI’s open-source tools, including ATLAS and the HADES R packages. No prior programming experience is required.
George Hripcsak, MD MS, Vivian Beaumont Allen Professor, Columbia Biomedical Informatics
Patrick Ryan, PhD, Adjunct Assistant Professor, Columbia Biomedical Informatics
Anna Ostropolets, MD PhD, Adjunct Assistant Professor, Columbia Biomedical Informatics
Karthik Natarajan, PhD, Assistant Professor, Columbia Biomedical Informatics
Program Fee: The registration fee includes five full days of instruction, hands-on exercises, access to computing infrastructure and datasets, and lunch each day. Please note that participants are responsible for their own travel and lodging.
If you prefer to pay by invoice, check, or wire transfer, please contact the Summer School organizers at [email protected].
Registration Process: Enrollment is first come, first served. Your spot is confirmed only after you complete the registration form and receive a confirmation email. The form will collect basic demographic details and credit card payment information. Date of birth is required to set up access to Columbia's systems.
Capacity: To ensure a high level of interaction and personalized support, registration is limited to 30 participants.
Cancellations: See the cancellation policy below.
Contact: For any questions about the Summer School, please contact the Summer School organizers at [email protected].
(until 5/15/2025)
Dietary Restrictions
Accommodations
The program strives to host inclusive, accessible events for all individuals.
Attendee List
Our trainings attract participants regionally, nationally, and internationally providing an exciting networking and collaborative environment to meet others and exchange ideas. As a goal of creating more opportunities for collaboration, we will develop a voluntary attendee list for those interested. Your information is never shared without your consent.
Photo Permissions
Participant Statement: I, the training participant, grant permission to The Trustees of Columbia University in the City of New York ("Columbia") and to Columbia's affiliations or others acting with authority from Columbia with respect to all photographs and recordings to be used online, in print, and/or for marketing purposes.
Cancellations
Cancellation notices must be received via email at least 30 days prior to the training start date in order to receive a full refund, minus a $75 administrative fee. Cancellation notices received via email 14-29 days prior to the training will receive a 75% refund, minus a $75 administrative fee. Please email your cancellation notice to [email protected]. Due to workshop capacity and preparation, we regret that we are unable to refund registration fees for cancellations <14days prior to the training.
If you are unable to attend the training, we encourage you to send a substitute. Please inform us of the substitute via email at least one week prior to the training to include them on attendee communications, updated registration forms, and materials. Please email substitute inquiries to [email protected]. In the event Columbia must cancel the event, your registration fee will be fully refunded.
Yes, it's okay to send me text messages including confirmations, changes, updates, and/or promotions. Message frequency varies. Message and data rates may apply. View our terms of service & privacy policy.
