This presenation and panel discussion explores how the Nordics can lead the next era of real-world evidence (RWE) generation by establishing a harmonized, federated data infrastructure, building on the successes of FinOMOP in Finland. Professor Kimmo Porkka will present how FinOMOP is developing a nationwide OMOP-based network across Finland’s university hospitals and health registries, enabling scalable, privacy-preserving real-world data analysis. By 2026, FinOMOP aims to provide an interoperable health data ecosystem that will support regulatory-grade evidence generation, precision medicine, and healthcare decision-making. Kimmo Porkka is a professor leading FinOMOP, specializing in health data infrastructure and Nordic collaboration for RWE generation.

The Nordic countries have unique strengths, including high-quality electronic health records (EHR), national health registries, and long-term patient follow-ups. By adopting a federated OMOP model, they could enable large-scale RWE studies while ensuring data privacy, sovereignty, and compliance with national and EU regulations. The session will discuss how Sweden and other Nordic countries can build on FinOMOP’s technical foundation, including steps for mapping their national registries and hospital data to OMOP, aligning governance frameworks, and establishing cross-border research collaborations.

A federated Nordic OMOP network could provide significant benefits for the life sciences sector by offering access to harmonized, high-quality real-world data. This would enable pharmaceutical and biotech companies to generate post-marketing regulatory evidence, support clinical trial optimization, and accelerate biomarker discovery. The integration of Nordic data could also enhance AI-driven healthcare research, improving predictive modeling and decision-support tools for personalized medicine.

Following his introduction, the panel will discuss how Sweden and other Nordic countries can build on FinOMOP’s success to leverage its high-quality health data and create a Nordic-wide federated research network. The discussion will explore lessons learned from existing federated networks, the steps Sweden should take to harmonize health data for secondary use, and which data sources should be prioritized for maximum impact. Can the Nordics be a global hub for pharmaceutical companies, biotech firms, AI-driven healthcare innovators, and clinical trial sponsors seeking access to high-quality, real-time real-world data.

This session concludes the four-part OMOP introduction at Vitalis, providing a forum for next steps, collaboration opportunities, and practical insights on Nordic OMOP adoption.