The OMOP Common Data Model facilitates the utilization of healthcare data – Medaffcon was involved in a Finnish OMOP pilot study

In healthcare, there is a vast amount of data being generated and processed. Sometimes, its utilization is cumbersome because the data is scattered, and its analysis requires a lot of preprocessing. The OMOP data model (Observational Medical Outcomes Partnership) seeks to address this challenge. In Finland, the utilization of OMOP was explored in a pilot study, in which Medaffcon also participated.  

The Observational Health Data Sciences and Informatics (OHDSI) organization drives the utilization of the OMOP data model. OMOP standardizes healthcare data and enables the uniform processing of data from various sources. 

“The use of the OMOP data model would significantly accelerate projects by streamlining the preprocessing of the data. Currently, preprocessing takes up to half of the working hours in research projects, sometimes exceeding half of the total time. When the data is in a consistent format, creating reusable analysis codes and conducting reproducible studies becomes more straightforward. Also, the open source nature of the data model simplifies leveraging artificial intelligence for querying and analyzing the data.”, says Medaffcon’s Sr. Data Scientist Juhani Aakko. 

OMOP data model offers smoother data utilization for health care data 

One of the benefits of the OMOP (The Observational Medical Outcomes Partnership) data model is that studies could be more easily conducted across different hospitals and countries. Authorities would also benefit from smoother data utilization.  

In Finland, the utilization of the OMOP (Observational Medical Outcomes Partnership) data model has been tested in three university hospitals, HUS (Helsinki University Hospital), the Pirkanmaa and Varsinais-Suomi Wellbeing Services County and Fimea (The Finnish Medicines Agency) in a pilot project funded by Sitra (The Future Fund).  

In the pilot, Fimea (The Finnish Medicines Agency) defined the information needs related to the use of new medications. University hospitals evaluated whether these information needs could be met by utilizing the hospital OMOP (The Observational Medical Outcomes Partnership) databases to extract the necessary information and to produce the aggregated results. 

OMOP data model pilot project in Finland with Medaffcon 

The pilot examined three different use cases related to the treatment of SMA (spinal muscular atrophy) and multiple myeloma, as well as the use of CART therapies (CAR T-cell therapies). The goal was to assess the suitability of the piloted model for practical use. Medaffcon conducted the technical implementation based on data from Helsinki University Hospital for the questions related to the treatment of multiple myeloma and the use of CART therapies. 

“We analyzed data from the OMOP (The Observational Medical Outcomes Partnership) database and assessed whether it could answer the research questions and conducted the analysis. The analysis codes were shared with the collaborators from Pirkanmaa (PIRHA) and Varsinais-Suomi (VARHA) Wellbeing Services County who could then perform the same analysis easily from their OMOP databases.”, Medaffcon’s Sr. Data Scientist Juhani Aakko says. 

Juhani Aakko considers the OMOP (The Observational Medical Outcomes Partnership) data model as an important step towards better utilization of healthcare data. Its broader usage would support healthcare organizations in research and data-driven decision-making, as well as authorities and pharmaceutical companies in utilizing health data to support patients’ better and impactful treatment.