About the OHDSI Center

Who we are

We are the U.S. OHDSI hub for graduate education, research, and administrative and legal support. We serve as your gateway to a global OHDSI community of epidemiologists, data scientists, clinicians, and learners. We harness high-quality, standardized observational health data to advance care for all.

Health Claims Data

The OHDSI Lab currently provides access to IQVIA’s PharMetrics dataset, a longitudinal health plan database of adjudicated medical and pharmacy claims, including patient enrollment data with 215+ million enrollees since 2006.

Learn more about PharMetrics

Windows Workspaces

Each OHDSI Lab user is allocated a virtual Windows Workspace where they can access the data and run analyses using a range of tools, including R / RStudio, Python, SQL, and ATLAS (the OHDSI community’s point-and-click cohort characterization tool).

User Support

The OHDSI Lab team holds weekly office hours to assist users with their projects and analyses. The team has also developed numerous training materials, covering a broad range of topics related to OHDSI Lab research projects.

Explore our user resources

Students / Classrooms

Complete capstone analyses on real world data engaging with the tools and standards used by an international network of researchers (OHDSI). Define your own study, or partner with one of our researchers, and contribute to an existing project.

Faculty / External Researchers

Run an observational study against IQVIA’s PharMetrics Dataset, or bring your own data, and utilize our broad suite of analytical tools. Collaborate with a network of experienced health data analysts.

A U.S. lab led by healthcare innovators

Northeastern’s OHDSI Lab includes faculty, research scientists, administrators, and staff dedicated to moving the needle in observational health research and education.

Meet our team

OHDSI: An evolving story

2009

U.S. FDA plants seeds of OHDSI

To assess long-term medication risks, the U.S. FDA and pharma companies launch the Observational Medical Outcomes Partnership. OMOP uses more than 200 million electronic patient records to evaluate 14 epidemiological study designs.

2011

OMOP findings replicated

Using datasets from Europe, OMOP replicates its original findings. Reproducibility is the holy grail of observational research.

2014

OHDSI coordinating center launched

OMOP’s leaders create an administrative home in New York City for the OHDSI community at Columbia University’s Department of Biomedical Informatics.

2015

First OHDSI symposium and study

Researchers publish an international study to characterize treatment pathways.

2016

China and Korea chapters launched

2018

European Health Data and Evidence Network established

The EHDEN network drives adoption of the OMOP Common Data Model and launches the European chapter and symposium.

2019

Australia, Japan, Singapore chapters launched

2020

OHDSI gains worldwide acceptance

OHDSI’s data network contains 2.1 billion patient records representing 18 countries. U.S., Asia-Pacific, Latin America, and other chapters host annual symposia.

2021

OHDSI Lab launched at Northeastern

Northeastern launches the OHDSI Lab, the first administrative hub for academic, research, and legal services in the U.S.

Our role as an engine for impact

The OHDSI Lab is one of Northeastern’s signature Impact Engines. These cross-disciplinary clusters of faculty, learners, and partners are dedicated to solving interconnected challenges of global importance, such as the lack of transparency and consistency in research that shapes healthcare.

Learn about Northeastern’s Impact Engines

I study frailty, a clinical syndrome in older patients. I rely on Brianne Olivieri-Mui at the OHDSI Center for help in understanding and working with extremely complex data. She brings deep expertise and enormous passion to every project, not to mention invaluable collaborators.
Sandra Shi
Assistant Scientist, Marcus Institute for Aging Research, Hebrew SeniorLife
Instructor in Medicine, Harvard Medical School

As a PhD student at Northeastern, I have access to OHDSI Center faculty with expertise in the latest methods and tools for real-world data analysis. These resources are indispensable for my coursework and research in population health.
Victor Castro
Data scientist, Mass General Brigham; student, Northeastern’s part-time Industry PhD Program

The OHDSI network’s consistent rigor of investigation offers a unique avenue to information clinicians can trust to guide diagnostic and therapeutic decision making. OHDSI shows us the true power of observational data to inform patient care.
Rohan Khera
Assistant Professor of Medicine, Yale School of Medicine
Yale-New Haven Hospital Center for Outcomes Research and Evaluation

Get involved