REALM Academy Webinar Explores Federated Access to Real-World Data

The REALM Academy webinar “RWD Access Webinar – Introducing REALM, National Nodes, and Data Transfer Agreements”, held last week, brought together interested participants to present the vision, technical foundations, and governance framework of the REALM initiative.

The session opened with an introduction by Sofija Jelčić, REALM Project Manager from RISE, followed by Gokhan Ertaylan (REALM coordinator, VITO), who outlined REALM’s objectives, target stakeholders, and its role within the European AI and health data landscape.

Frédéric Jung (VITO) presented the technical foundations of REALM, highlighting its federated architecture, the use of the OMOP Common Data Model, and the role of REALM National Nodes in enabling secure and interoperable access to real-world data across Europe.

Governance and regulatory aspects were addressed by Andra-Elena Albisoru, who explained the structure and purpose of REALM Data Transfer Agreements, the mandate for signing partners, and alignment with GDPR and the upcoming European Health Data Space.

The webinar concluded with a discussion and an overview of next steps, including opportunities to engage with REALM and upcoming REALM Academy activities. Thank you to everyone who participated and engaged in discussions. The upcoming REALM Academy activities can be found here.