Getting open source R in the mainstream for CDISC SDTM
Allwyn Dsouza · Vishvanath Kothari
Saama Technologies · PHUSE APAC, Chennai · 2024
Much of my work sits at the intersection of clinical data, software engineering, automation, and emerging technology.
I enjoy taking ideas that are technically promising and exploring what it takes to make them practical in the pharmaceutical industry — where standards, reproducibility, transparency, validation, and scalability matter as much as innovation.
My PHUSE work on bringing open-source R into CDISC SDTM workflows was one such exploration. Today, that same interest has expanded into AI, agentic systems, clinical data automation, and intelligent software for the life sciences.
This article brings together some of my conference presentations, publications, and ideas that I've shared with the clinical data and technology community.
The pharmaceutical industry is increasingly adopting open-source technologies for clinical data analysis, with R emerging as an important component of the modern clinical programming ecosystem.
In this PHUSE presentation, Allwyn Dsouza and Vishvanath Kothari explore the adoption of open-source R for CDISC SDTM data transformation and standardisation, and the considerations involved in bringing R-based approaches into mainstream clinical data workflows.
The work examines the practical intersection of R, CDISC standards, automation, and clinical data programming, contributing to the broader industry discussion around modernising clinical data pipelines while maintaining the consistency and standards expected in regulated environments.
Presented at PHUSE APAC Single Day Event, Chennai — 2024
Topics: CDISC · SDTM · R · Open Source · Clinical Data · Automation · Pharmaceutical Programming
