Join Us At The Inaugural OHDSI Africa Symposium
Nov. 10-12, 2025 • Joint Clinical Research Centre (JCRC) & Mestil Hotel Kampala
The inaugural OHDSI Africa Symposium will be held in Kampala at the Joint Clinical Research Centre (JCRC) and Mestil Hotel. Our community is delighted to introduce a new face-to-face opportunity in Africa, where OHDSI is growing at an exciting pace. We hope you will join us for this historical moment.
The first OHDSI Africa symposium will be hosted by JCRC and will begin with a dedicated one-day training course at JCRC, followed by a two-day main conference at Mestil hotel. Below are some important dates for you to save to your calendar:
Collaborator Showcase
- Submissions deadline: September 10
- Submissions review: September 11-30
- Notification of acceptance: October 5
Symposium
- Tutorial: November 10 at JCRC
- Main conference: November 11-12 at Mestil Hotel
Mestil Hotel Accommodations
- Booking Code: JCRC
- Booking Link: https://direct-book.com/properties/MestilDIRECT?promotion_code=JCRC25
Tentative Agenda
The tentative agenda will be shared when available. Please stay tuned for updates as the agenda is finalized over the next coming months. For non-OHDSI-related information, please visit the JCRC website.
Collaborator Showcase
OHDSI's mission is to improve health by empowering a community to collaboratively generate evidence that promotes better health decisions and better care. We envision a world in which observational research produces a comprehensive understanding of health and disease. To achieve this goal, OHDSI has formed a multi-stakeholder, interdisciplinary collaboration that aims to bring out the value of health data through large-scale analytics and open-source software tools. OHDSI has established a global community of observational health researchers and a research network covering over 974 million patients.
OHDSI's achievements to date would not be possible if not for the hard work of our growing community members. The inaugural OHDSI Africa Symposium will showcase how African health data can be standardized and leveraged for high quality research and policy. It will demonstrate real-world examples of OHDSI's impact on health outcomes. It will also build capacity for African institutions to participate in global research networks and foster collaboration among researchers and international partners to advance data-driven innovations.
Showcase Structure
The showcase will be structured to highlight posters and lightning talks. You may apply to present your work as a poster or a lightning talk (or both). Although we strive to accommodate your requested presentation format, it is not guaranteed and will be confirmed at time of acceptance.
POSTER: A poster-board to present a static display summary of your latest research; poster measurements are to be a horizontal-orientation and maximum size of 48 inches long X 36 inches high. Please create a thin fabric or paper-type poster and do not use foam core. As always you may use the which was introduced a few years ago. Both can be found below.
The traditional poster template is available here.
The Mike Morrison poster template is available here. (please make sure you update the QR code if you plan on using it)
LIGHTNING TALK: A 6-minute podium presentation to verbally share your story with the community.
Topics should align with at least one of OHDSI's strategic areas of focus:
- Observational data standards and management
- Methodological research
- Open-source analytics development
- Clinical applications
- Community development
Clinical research from OHDSI's analytic use cases:
- Clinical characterization
- Population-level estimation
- Patient-level prediction
Submission Instructions
Please submit your work using Submission Link. You will be triggered to upload a brief report in the second section of the submission form. The brief report template can be. The document can be downloaded as a Microsoft Word document by clicking on the link and selecting File -> Download -> Microsoft Word (.docx).
Each presenting author should upload their document as a PDF. The submission should meet the following guidelines:
- Maximum 1,000 words (exclusive of references/authors/affiliations/tables/figures)
- Maximum 10 MB
- Clearly state the names of all co-authors and affiliations at the top (list them in the order that will appear on the presentation)
- Have the following sections: Background, Methods, Results, Conclusion
- References/citations are recommended (maximum 15; suggested style is Vancouver, DOI, or PMID)
- Unpublished in the peer-review literature at the time of submission; preprints are acceptable
- [Optional] Up to 3 additional figures or tables can be added to support description of the methods or results
By submitting your work, the presenting author agrees to present at the inaugural OHDSI Africa symposium 2025 in person if their work is selected. This agreement includes being present at the scheduled time or sending someone to represent in your absence.
Your document should be saved as a PDF using the following naming convention, where the "lastname" and "firstname" correspond to the name of the presenting author, and "title" should include keywords that summarize the title: lastname-firstname_title_2025symposium.
Important Dates
- All submissions are due no later than September 10.
- All submissions will be peer-reviewed by the The OHDSI Africa symposium 2025 Scientific Review Committee between September 11-30.
- If you have been selected to present your work, you will be notified via email by October 5.
Should you need to change your responses to any of the questions on the submission form or revise your brief report, please email ohdsi@jcrc.org.ug. Your submission will be removed, and you will need to submit again with the revised PDF. If you have any questions or need help with the submission process, please contact ohdsi@jcrc.org.ug.