Open calls for SMEs

A final SME call was held from Tuesday 15th March to Wednesday 13th April 2022: more information via this news update.

More information on the call can be found in the 2022 Call Description Document. The application portal was closed on Wednesday 13th April.

There will be no further calls during the EHDEN IMI project phase, but further communications on future opportunities to collaborate will follow.

The European Health Data and Evidence Network invites Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) in Europe to apply for training and certification to map health data from various formats to the OMOP common data model (CDM).  The EHDEN project aims to create a thriving ecosystem of data sources interested in making their data available for federated analyses in the CDM, and of SMEs who help them map this data into the OMOP format. On this page, you will find relevant information for SMEs willing to become certified.

Why do we need certified SMEs?

The ambitions of the EHDEN project are high. We aim to standardize 100 million patient records across Europe from different geographic areas and data source types, e.g. hospital data, registries, population databases. This implies that for each of the data sources, a custom Extraction Transform and Load (ETL) process has to be developed. A high quality ETL process has several requirements:

  • A high involvement of the data custodian who knows the data and its provenance best.
  • Deep expertise in using the OMOP-CDM and its Standardized Vocabularies.
  • Good programming and engineering skills.
  • Advanced expertise in database management systems.
  • Etc.

The data transformation needs to be of high quality and should follow all best practices with respect to transparency and reproducibility.

Capped funding will be available to data custodians through a “Harmonization Fund” to subsidise mapping performed by certified SMEs. Per data source there is a maximum amount of funding of 100.000 euros. We anticipate a continuously growing market for mappings because of the increasing interest into OMOP CDM. Data custodians are expected to have a strong interest in mapping their data to benefit from being part of the federated EHDEN ecosystem

We expect that those who receive training and certification through EHDEN will actually go on to perform mappings to help build the network. We also hope that they will become active members of the community, sharing ideas and possibly helping to develop or improve data mappings and analysis tools.

Why should your SME participate?

Ultimately, EHDEN aspires to impact how health research is conducted to have a positive impact on patient outcomes. Consequently, there are many stakeholders who will benefit from EHDEN. In particular SMEs, for whom the value created by EHDEN is very tangible. We summarize the most important aspects here:

  • Expand your existing market:
    • Customer base and geographical reach
    • Range of services and products
  • Contribute to the creation of emerging, new markets for data sciences
    • Health data mapping to the OMOP CDM
    • Data analysis services for small and medium biomedical companies
    • Infrastructure design and deployment
    • Enabler of high throughput studies by bridging data users and providers
    • Training on the use of OHDSI tools and observational analyses
    • Ongoing support and maintenance of connected data and provided solutions
  • Early adopters will gain competitive advantage on specialised skill set
  • Possibility to contribute to a change of paradigm benefitting health of citizens
  • Short-term income generation to offset skill investment
  • Free training and certification
  • Open source community boosts opportunities
  • Thriving community facilitates hands-on training of new staff
  • Synergic ecosystem facilitates exposure and brand recognition with key stakeholders