What Observational Health Data Sciences & Informatics does

OHDSI (Observational Health Data Sciences and Informatics, pronounced "Odyssey") is a multi-stakeholder, interdisciplinary open-science collaborative founded in 2014 that grew out of the Observational Medical Outcomes Partnership (OMOP). It operates as a global research network spanning 83 countries with over 4,200 collaborators, with its central coordinating center housed at Columbia University's Department of Biomedical Informatics in New York. The collaborative maintains the OMOP Common Data Model (CDM), which standardizes observational health data to enable federated analytics across a network covering approximately 810 million unique patient records, and has produced more than 950 peer-reviewed publications.

The collaborative's technology stack centers on the OMOP CDM and an ecosystem of open-source tools: ATLAS (a web-based platform for cohort definition and population-level estimation), the Hades R package library for statistical methods, the Data Quality Dashboard for validation, Strategus for distributed study execution, Circe for cohort expressions, WebAPI for programmatic access, and ATHENA for vocabulary exploration. OHDSI has recently expanded its AI/ML capabilities through tools such as FastOMOP (multi-agent cohort creation), Phenelope (LLM-based concept set development), Cohort-Pilot (natural-language to cohort conversion), ARKE (ontology-driven radiology terminology using LLMs and RAG), and integrations with Epic, Apache Airflow, dbt, DuckDB, MCP servers, MEDS, and Databricks Genie Spaces.

OHDSI does not operate as a commercial entity; all software, tools, and data standards are released as open-source and freely available. Funding flows from institutional partnerships, grants, and sponsorships rather than product sales or subscriptions. The organization serves academic and research institutions, pharmaceutical and life sciences companies, healthcare providers, and government health agencies — addressing the persistent problems of data silos, lack of interoperability, and the high cost of generating regulatory-grade real-world evidence across fragmented health systems.

Name

Observational Health Data Sciences & Informatics

Legal name

Observational Health Data Sciences and Informatics

Website

https://ohdsi.org

Company type

Private

Founded year

2014

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

51–100 employees

Short description

OHDSI is a multi-stakeholder open-science collaborative founded in 2014 that maintains the OMOP Common Data Model and an open-source tool ecosystem for observational health data analytics, serving 4,200+ collaborators across 83 countries in academia, pharma, and government without commercial revenue.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Observational Health Data Analytics

NAICS

Computing Infrastructure Providers, Data Processing, Web Hosting, and Related Services (5182), Computer Systems Design and Related Services (54151)

SIC

Services-Computer Programming, Data Processing, Etc. (7370), Services-Computer Programming Services (7371)

akta.pro primary industry

Interoperability Standards, Profiles & Implementation (HL7/FHIR/IHE) (HLACABAA)

akta.pro secondary industries

HIE Platforms & Network Services (Community/Regional/National) (HLACABAB), Health Information Exchange & Public Health Data Integration (HLAJAJAD)

Keywords

• Observational health data
• Common data model
• Real-world evidence
• Open-source analytics
• Clinical research informatics

Headquarters

HQ city

New York

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Software

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Operations, Others

Revenue model

1. Open-Source / Non-Profit Collaborative Model: OHDSI is a multi-stakeholder, interdisciplinary open-science collaborative. All software tools are open-source and freely available. The organization does not generate commercial revenue. Funding comes from institutional partnerships, grants, and sponsorships rather than product sales or subscriptions.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels7 records

Core offering

OHDSI develops and maintains the OMOP Common Data Model and an accompanying suite of open-source tools (ATLAS, Hades, WebAPI) that let researchers, health systems, and regulators run standardized observational analyses across distributed health data. Its offerings are released as free, open-source software, with the central coordinating center at Columbia University providing governance, training, and community support.

Product overview

OHDSI is a multi-stakeholder, open-science collaborative providing an ecosystem of open-source tools and standards for observational health data analytics. The portfolio centers on the OMOP Common Data Model (CDM), which enables federated analytics across a global network of over 810 million patient records. Core tools include ATLAS for cohort definition and analysis, Hades R packages for statistical methods, Data Quality Dashboard for data validation, Strategus for study execution, and Circe for cohort expressions. Supporting infrastructure includes WebAPI for programmatic access, ATHENA for vocabulary exploration, and Community Dashboard for network metrics. The ecosystem is enhanced by AI-powered tools including FastOMOP for multi-agent cohort creation, Phenelope for LLM-based concept set development, Cohort-Pilot for natural language cohort analytics, and ARKE for ontology-driven radiology terminology standardization. Educational resources include the Book of OHDSI, Summer School program, and EHDEN Academy. All solutions are open-source, with a central coordinating center at Columbia University.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• OMOP Common Data Model: The standardized data model developed and maintained by OHDSI for observational health research

Named customers6 records

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles4 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

Yes

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration7 records

AI capability11 records

Feature5 records

Partnerships

Seven partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.

• Uppsala Monitoring Center (UMC) - WHO Collaborating CentrecoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 June 2026OHDSI partnered with UMC (WHO Collaborating Centre for International Drug Monitoring) to help integrate Sweden's national registry data into the OMOP Common Data Model. The collaboration utilized OHDSI tools and data quality packages to successfully design and execute a full study using Strategus in just five days, demonstrating the efficiency of the OMOP CDM for global pharmacovigilance.
• EHDEN FoundationcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerEuropean Health Data Evidence Network collaborating with OHDSI to maintain and enhance OHDSI vocabularies, improve quality for RWE generation in Europe, and support the EHDEN network of standardized databases. EHDEN is actively recruiting a Clinical Terminology Scientist to support OHDSI vocabulary maintenance.
• FALCON Research NetworkcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerFederated Alliance for Large-scale Cancer Observational Network dedicated to advancing real-world oncology evidence through federated health analyses on the OMOP CDM. Hosted 2026 Symposium and Bladder Cancer Studyathon in Antwerp, Belgium.
• Columbia UniversitycoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerOHDSI's central coordinating center is housed at Columbia University's Department of Biomedical Informatics. Columbia hosts the annual Summer School in Observational Health Data Science & Informatics and employs OHDSI leadership including Matthew McDermott (Assistant Professor) and staff supporting network operations.
• NIH IMPROVE InitiativeminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerNIH IMPROVE initiative supporting the second OHDSI Maternal Health Fellowship designed to train clinical investigators in observational research methods for improved maternal and neonatal care.
• Fiocruz (Fundação Oswaldo Cruz)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerLeading Brazilian research institution linked to the Ministry of Health that partnered with OHDSI to mobilize regional leadership and expand engagement across Latin America, enabling the first OHDSI LATAM Symposium.
• DARWIN EUcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerEuropean Medicines Agency's DARWIN EU initiative utilizing OHDSI tools and OMOP CDM for real-world evidence generation. Multiple DARWIN EU studies presented at OHDSI symposia.

Scale indicators6 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Direct peers

• EHDEN Foundation: European Health Data Evidence Network is OHDSI's closest peer: an open-science federation that standardizes European health data to the OMOP CDM, co-develops vocabularies, and runs joint studies. Effectively the European mirror of OHDSI and a named strategic partner.
• TriNetX: Commercial global health research network that enables federated real-world evidence and clinical trial feasibility across hospitals on a proprietary data model. Competes with OHDSI for the same pharma-sponsored RWE and trial-recruitment workloads.
• PCORnet: PCORI-funded US national clinical research network coordinating observational and interventional research across health systems using a common data model. Same fundamental proposition as OHDSI (standardized data, federated analytics) for a different funding sponsor and use-case mix.
• Sentinel Initiative (FDA): FDA's national active surveillance system for medical product safety using a distributed data network of claims and EHR data. Direct functional peer to OHDSI for drug safety / pharmacovigilance, the same use case UMC has partnered with OHDSI on.
• Verana Health: Real-world evidence company that ingests specialty society registries (e.g., AAO, AAN) into OMOP-compatible structures to serve life sciences RWE customers. Competes for the same pharma RWE budget using the same underlying OMOP CDM.
• Datavant: Health data connectivity company that links de-identified patient records across providers, payers, and data vendors for research. Comparable to OHDSI's federated analytics vision but via tokenization rather than a common data model.

Broad incumbents

• Flatiron Health: Roche-owned real-world oncology evidence platform that abstracts EHR data and supports industry-grade observational research. A broader, commercial incumbent in the same observational health analytics space, with a strong oncology focus that overlaps with OHDSI's FALCON network.
• IQVIA: Largest global CRO and RWE provider with proprietary data assets (claims, EHR, genomics) used for observational research and regulatory submissions. Broader incumbent whose RWE franchise overlaps OHDSI's pharma customer use cases.
• Optum (UnitedHealth Group): One of the largest US commercial health data and analytics franchises, providing claims-linked RWE and life sciences services. Broad incumbent competing for pharma RWE dollars with proprietary data rather than an open collaborative model.

Emerging players

• Atropos Health: Evidence-generation platform built on OMOP-compatible data that produces real-world evidence on demand from de-identified records. Emerging player leveraging the same OMOP CDM substrate OHDSI maintains, focused on chat/AI-driven RWE generation.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat7 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/ohdsi
• GitHubgithub.com/OHDSI
• YouTubeyoutube.com/c/OHDSI
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/ohdsi
• Instagraminstagram.com/ohdsi

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

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M&A

Investments

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Frequently asked questions about Observational Health Data Sciences & Informatics