Matt Wiener co-leads the development of EHDEN’s SME Marketplace, training and certifying the project’s growing international network of SMEs that are leveraging observational data locally. The SME network is the EHDEN project’s engine, supplying the local knowledge required to convert the observational data available in many unique EU databases into a common data model so they are usable within a federated network. Matt is a Director of Informatics and Predictive Sciences at Bristol-Myers Squibb, joining the company through the acquisition of Celgene. Given Matt’s deep understanding of the need for analytical rigour in healthcare, in this podcast we discuss the current gulf that exists in medical practice between doctors and quants, and how this situation can be solved in the future. We also the many challenges to harnessing observational data are not, in fact, technical, but political. EHDEN can serve as a test-bed to demonstrate the value of RWE to help remove the barriers that current exist to access health records and apply effectiveness in decision making. The podcast also outlines many of the core issues to be discussed in a webinar series as part of EHDEN’s annual General Assembly and Road Show. Matt Wiener has a PhD in mathematics from the University of Chicago, and an undergraduate degree from MIT. He’s applied mathematical modelling and analytics to different phases of drug development, from early research to manufacturing. Before moving into healthcare, he worked in various fields of mathematical modelling, including for the health effects of air pollution. He also, for a time, was engaged in Postdoctoral research at the NIH’s Institute of Mental Health.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.