Why OHDSI – and Why Now?
As Co-Lead of the OHDSI Germany Node, Data4Life strengthens its role as a strategic contributor to Germany’s real-world data research ecosystem. This role marks a shift from being a technology provider to becoming a co-architect of national research infrastructures. It allows us to help shape the standards, governance models, and tools needed to unlock the full potential of health data in Germany and beyond.
Key facts
- Established in 2014
- Contributors from academia, regulatory agencies, health systems, and industry
- Hundreds of collaborative studies per year, including with EMA, FDA, and WHO
- More at: www.ohdsi.org
You don´t know the OHDSI community yet?
The Observational Health Data Sciences and Informatics (OHDSI, pronounced “Odyssey”) is a global, open-science community that aims to improve health through large-scale observational research.
At the heart of OHDSI lies the OMOP Common Data Model (CDM), which enables the harmonization of real-world health data from different sources. This allows data to be analyzed consistently across institutions and countries, while protecting privacy and sovereignty.
Our Role as Co-Lead in Germany
As Co-Lead of OHDSI Germany, Data4Life takes on responsibilities in:
- Strategic planning and governance
- Operational support for the community
- Community engagement and onboarding of new partners
- Technical contributions to infrastructure and tools
- Enabling and coordinating network studies across member institutions
Our non-profit status helps foster trust and openness in the community. We act as a neutral enabler - collaborative, not competitive. This makes us a natural partner for hospitals, research institutions, and public agencies across Germany.
Driving Interoperability and Impact
Germany’s health data landscape remains fragmented. OHDSI offers a proven, scalable approach to overcome these silos.
Through our leadership in OHDSI Germany, we support:
- Adoption of OMOP to reduce fragmentation across hospitals and research institutions
- Interoperability at scale, enabling multicenter studies and reproducible research
- Federated analytics, in line with European data protection principles
Aligned with Our Platform Vision
Data4Life’s research platform Data2Evidence (D2E) is designed to be OHDSI-compatible from the ground up:
Get Involved: Are you a researcher, clinician, or policymaker interested in using OMOP or joining OHDSI Germany?
- Join our community events and working groups
- Participate in network studies
- Collaborate on infrastructure projects
- Bring your use case ideas into the network
