Seoyoon Jang is currently an undergraduate researcher at CCADD after diligently completing the 2024 winter internship program. Seoyoon Jang is majoring in Systems Biotechnology at Chung-Ang University. Her research interests include generating real-world evidence (RWE) based on real-world data (RWD) using electronic medical records (EMR) and regulatory science. During her internship, she became proficient in R and gained hands-on experience with both representation and generative LLM models.

Seeun Park is currently an undergraduate researcher at CCADD. She became an undergraduate student researcher after successfully completing the 2024 Winter Internship program. She is a Bioengineering major at Yonsei University. She was able to gain knowledge and hands-on experience on artificial intelligence for clinical drug development by the project “Improving the Generalizability of Natural Language Process Models to Extract Drug Safety Information from Clinical Notes”. With passion in healthcare and safety, she focuses on exploring clinical pharmacology and regulatory science more specifically Real-World Data (RWD) and policy analysis in Korea. It is her goal to work on expertise for the improvement of disease prevention and control.

This summer, CCADD welcomes three interns-Kim Chanmin, Choi Yunjin, and Yoo Kyungwan -for the 2024 Summer Internship Program.

Kyungwan Yoo, a student at Kyung Hee University, earned his Bachelor’s degree in genetic engineering. He worked as an undergraduate researcher at the Kyung Hee University Regenerative Medicine Institute, focusing on creating cell-targeting treatments. Currently, he is interested in integrating biological science with artificial intelligence (AI) technology and applying it to drug development. Kyungwan applied for the 2024 CCADD Summer Internship Program to expand his knowledge of drug development in general, be it clinical trials, and/or utilizing medical big data. He also intends to gain practical experiences in applying programming languages to these domains.

Yunjin Choi has graduated from Stony Brook University with a Bachelor’s degree in mathematics. After graduating, Yunjin worked as a statistical analyst at the Biomedical Research Institute, Korea University Guro Hospital. She has mainly conducted retrospective studies on nephrology and neurology. For example, she published a paper entitled "Fasting glucose variability and risk of dementia in Parkinson's disease: a 9-year longitudinal follow-up study of a nationwide cohort", which examined the impact of fasting glucose variability on the risk of developing dementia in Parkinson's disease patients over a nine-year period. The study found that greater variability in fasting glucose levels was associated with a higher risk of dementia, further suggesting that stabilizing glucose levels might be beneficial for cognitive health in these patients. Besides being the first author of the study, she was also responsible for data analysis and interpretation, ensuring the accuracy and reliability of the study results. She also has the opportunity to learn how to draft and revise the manu and enhance its scientific merit. During this time, Yunjin developed an interest in Real-World Data (RWD), such as electronic medical records (EMR). She intends to pursue her interest while at CCADD.

Chanmin Kim is a Biological Engineering major at Kangwon National University. She became interested in developing new drugs while learning drug delivery systems. She also completed GMP training. After receiving the Excellence Award for designing smart healthcare products at Gachon University's DNA (Data, Network, AI) School Camp , she became interested in improving the efficiency of developing new drugs by applying data science and AI. Her goal is to become a researcher in the development of new drugs using AI. Through her 2024 CCADD summer internship program, she will pursue this goal.

We hope that during their summer internship, they will gain confidence in their field of study, learn how to study independently and explore new knowledge, and devote all their passion to gaining a deep understanding of drug development and regulatory science over the course of these two months.

Choi Y, Kim BK, Won JH, Yoo JW, Choi W, Jung S, Kim JY, Choi IY, Chung NG, Lee JW, Choi JY, Kang HJ, Lee H. A Study to Evaluate the Effectiveness and Safety of Prephase Steroid Treatment before Remission Induction Chemotherapy in Patients with Pediatric Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia Using Common Data Model-Based Real-World Data: A Retrospective Observational Study. Clin Epidemiol. 2024 Apr 22;16:293-304. doi: 10.2147/CLEP.S454263. PMID: 38681782; PMCID: PMC11049150.

The study "Effectiveness and Safety of Sodium-Glucose Cotransporter 2 Inhibitors Added to Dual or Triple Treatment in Patients with Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus," authored by Yesol Hong, Yoomin Jeon, Yoona Choi, Tae Kyu Chung, and Howard Lee, was published in the Diabetes Therapy on December 20, 2023. Conducted at Seoul National University Hospital (SNUH) in South Korea, this research by the CCADD team delved into the use of Sodium-Glucose Cotransporter 2 Inhibitors (SGLT2i) in Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus (T2DM) treatment. The study, utilizing Real-World Data (RWD) from electronic medical records (EMR) from SNUH's a Common Data Model database, revealed improvements in HbA1c levels and a higher rate of patients achieving targeted HbA1c levels with SGLT2i therapy.

Furthermore, CCADD is dedicated to continuing its use of EMR-based RWD to generate important clinical evidence, particularly in areas where Randomized Controlled Trials (RCTs) may face limitations. This commitment underscores CCADD's role in advancing medical research and improving patient care through innovative data utilization.

Yoona Choi and Jung-Hyun Won attended the 65th Annual Meeting & Exposition of the American Society of Hematology (ASH), which took place from December 9 to 12, 2023, in San Diego, USA. Annually, the ASH conference brings together healthcare professionals, researchers, clinicians, and academics from around the globe to explore advancements in hematology. This prestigious event not only focuses on the study, diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of blood disorders but also features a variety of social events and opportunities for collaboration and the sharing of insights among experts in the field. Official photos from ASH are available here.

At the 'Outcomes Research—Lymphoid Malignancies: Poster II' session, Yoona Choi, serving as the first author and representing the entire research team, presented a study titled 'Evaluating the Effectiveness and Safety of Prephase Steroid Treatment before Remission Induction Chemotherapy in Pediatric Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia: A Common Data Model-Based Real-World Data Approach.' This study investigated steroid pretreatment in pediatric acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) patients undergoing remission induction chemotherapy (RIC), with the aim of reducing complications such as tumor lysis syndrome (TLS). Analyzing data from Seoul National University Hospital and Catholic University Seoul St. Mary’s Hospital, the study compared patients who received steroid pretreatment at least seven days before RIC with those who did not. The findings indicated a significant reduction in TLS incidence in the pretreated group. While overall survival rates were higher in this group, the difference was not statistically significant. These results provide important real-world evidence for the effectiveness of steroid pretreatment in reducing TLS risk in pediatric ALL patients.

This study was part of a larger project, funded by a grant from the Ministry of Health and Welfare, aiming to develop a disease registry database for pediatric ALL using real-world data in the clinical data warehouse (CDW) of Seoul National University Hospital and Catholic University Seoul St. Mary’s Hospital, thereby generating real-world evidence for pediatric ALL.