A new research article, entitled “Assessing the representativeness of single-center EMR data on ten cancer types: A comparative analysis with national statistics from South Korea (2011–2021)”, authored by Won Jung-Hyun and Howard Lee, was published in the International Journal of Medical Informatics(IJMI). IJMI is a leading international journal that publishes high-impact research on the development, implementation, and real-world evaluation of health information systems and clinical informatics technologies.

This study evaluated whether single-center electronic medical record (EMR) data from Seoul National University Hospital (SNUH) could represent a real-world data source for oncology research in South Korea. To address this, the study analyzed annual incidence and prevalence patterns for ten major cancer types (e.g., breast, gallbladder/biliary tract, gastric, kidney, liver, lung, pancreatic, prostate, thyroid cancers, and leukemia) from 2011 to 2021 using national cancer statistics from the Korean Statistical Information Service (KOSIS) as reference. The study also examined age and gender distributions between two datasets. The results showed that the SNUH EMR data included 8.2% of national incident cancer cases and 10.7% of prevalent cases. The study also found no significant differences in age and gender distributions across all cancer types between the SNUH EMR and national data. In addition, strong correlations in annual trends were observed for several major cancers, including breast, lung, and pancreatic cancers. Overall, this study showed that single-center EMR data can be a valuable, representative clinical resource for oncology research in South Korea. At the same time, the study emphasizes that the underrepresentation of certain cancer types and external temporal factors, such as changes in clinical guidelines or major healthcare disruptions, should be carefully considered when generalizing findings from a single institution to broader populations.

A research article entitled “Beyond Fine-Tuning: Leveraging Domain-Aware In-Context Learning with Large Language Models for Clinical Named Entity Recognition” has been published in the Journal of Biomedical Informatics (Volume 174, February 2026). The Journal of Biomedical Informatics is a leading international journal in the field of biomedical and clinical informatics that publish high-impact research at the intersection of medicine, data science, and artificial intelligence. Our study presents a comprehensive evaluation of large language model (LLM) based in-context learning (ICL) for clinical named entity recognition (NER) under realistic clinical constraints.

The study compared ICL with conventional encoder-based fine-tuning approaches using manually annotated real-world clinical notes. ICL configurations were optimized across task instructions, output formats, demonstration selection methods, sorting strategies, and demonstration pool sizes using the open-source LLaMA-3.3-70B model, while encoder-based fine-tuning was performed with RoBERTa-large as the strongest baseline.

The results showed that optimized demonstration selection played a major role in determining ICL performance, and improved macro F1 scores compared to random selection. In moderate-resource settings, ICL outperformed encoder-based fine-tuning and remained competitive across a wide range of labeled data sizes. Moreover, ICL demonstrated superior data efficiency and achieved substantial gains in cross-institutional transfer without requiring any parameter updates.

Overall, the study highlights the potential of domain-aware ICL as a flexible and data-efficient alternative to encoder-based fine-tuning for clinical NER. By enabling rapid adaptation through demonstration pools rather than retraining, the proposed approach offers a practical solution for real-world clinical natural language processing in dynamic and resource-limited healthcare environments.

This research was supported by grants from the MSIT (IITP), the Ministry of Health and Welfare (KHIDI), and the Ministry of Education (NRF) of the Republic of Korea.

The research article entitled “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”¹, which was first-authored by the former CCADD graduate,Yoona Choi, and co-authored by the members of CCADD  has been cited in the lastest haematology guidelines on the diagnosis and managemet of tumour lysis syndrome² published by the British Society for Haematology. Moreover, the study was cited in a recent review article published in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM)³ detailing the epidemiology and pathophysiology of tumor lysis syndrome.

The British Society for Haematology produces up-to-date evidence-based guidelines on the diagnosis and treatment of haematological disease, while The New England Journal of Medicine is one of the prominent journals of new medical knowledge and clinical best practicies worldwide (Impact Factor 78.5).

This recognition highlights the clinical significance of our study in advancing evidence-based practice for pediatric acute lymphoblastic leukemia. CCADD takes pride in producing research that informs medical decision-making, and will continue efforts to deliver impactful studies.

1_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. 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.

2_Chan YLT, El-Sharkawi D, Shah P, Chanouzas D, O’Connor D, Marks SD, et al. British Society for Haematology updated guidelines for the diagnosis and management of tumour lysis syndrome in adults and children with haematological malignancies: a focus on patient safety. Br J Haematol. 2025;00:1-11. doi:10.1111/bjh.70092.

3_Bociek RG, Lunning M. Tumor lysis syndrome. N Engl J Med. 2025 Sep 18;393(11):1104-1116. doi:10.1056/NEJMra2300923. PMID:40961427.

A research article, entitled “Country Contribution to Investigators of Pivotal Clinical Trials and their Primary Publications of New Drugs Approved by the US Food and Drug Administration, 2012–2021”, authored by Yoona Choi, Jung-Hyun Won, Heeju Kim, YeSol Hong, Yujin Kim, and Howard Lee, has been published in Clinical Pharmacology & Therapeutics (CPT) on February 5, 2025. Clinical Pharmacology & Therapeutics (CPT) is one of the most prestigious journals in the field of clinical pharmacology (impact factor of 6.3 in 2023), reflecting its significant influence in translational medicine and regulatory science.

This study investigated the geographical distribution of investigators and authors in pivotal clinical trials (PCTs) for new drugs approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) from 2012 to 2021 and its association with the racial and ethnic diversity of study participants. While PCTs are often conducted across multiple countries to ensure broad participant enrollment and generalizability of clinical trial findings, the diversity of trial participants remains inadequate, with a predominant representation of White. To address this, the study analyzed 429 new drugs, 734 PCTs, and 718 primary publications (PPubs), extracting data from FDA labels, review s, PPubs, and clinicaltrials.gov. The findings revealed that North America and Western Europe (NAWE) accounted for the largest proportion of PCT investigators (62.9%), PPub authors (81.7%), and lead authors (90.9%). Among 521 PPubs reporting racial and ethnic distribution of participants, the median Diversity Index (DI) was 0.33, with only 16.3% of PPubs exceeding a DI of 0.5.

This study shows that evidence generation for new drug approval has remained concentrated in NAWE, with an even stronger presence in PPub authorship. This study emphasizes that to improve the racial/ethnic diversity of PCT participants, investigators from non-NAWE countries should be encouraged to take on more leadership roles, thereby increasing their likelihood of serving as authors in PPub.

Prof. Lee and David Seung U Lee met with Prof. M. Madan Babu, PhD, FRS, FMedSci, from St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, Memphis, TN, USA, July 17, 2023 in the Grand Hyatt Incheon. Prof. Babu is currently the Endowed Chair in Biomedical Data Science and Director of the Center of Excellence for Data Driven Discovery, St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. He will soon serve as a Senior Vice President and Chief Data Scientist at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. Prof. Babu is an acclaimed researcher and scientist in various fields including GPCR signaling, regulation and pharmacology, gene , gene regulation, computational biology, structural bioinformatics, and drug discovery. He published many research articles in high-impact journals such as Nature, Science, and Cell. He is also Chief Editor for Molecular Systems Biology journal. 

It has turned out that Prof. Babu had followed the work from CCADD and is interested to know more about what is currently happening in those research areas. In this regard, the main purpose of Prof. Babu's visit this time was to establish professional relationships and set up international scientific bridges with St. Jude to enrich biomedical data science collaborations. Prof. Lee and David detailed the big data science and AI in drug development and optimal usage projects by CCADD, in which Prof. Babu showed great interest. Prof. Babu asked Prof. Lee for additional information and s for those research projects, which David will soon follow up. 

Out of a 3-hour lunch meeting with Prof. Babu, many collaboration opportunities and projects were discussed and proposed, one of which was an exchange program between the two institutions. Co-publication was also talked about, and Prof. Babu asked if CCADD could write a perspective paper regarding drug repurposing using AI for the Molecular Systems Biology journal. Prof. Lee and David hope to see more details soon and will keep CCADD informed. 

Prof. Howard Lee chaired a forum, organized and sponsored by DailyPharm, an online-only journalism company focusing on the pharmaceutical industry, on April 12, 2021. The title of the forum was 'Reimbursement System for High-Priced Drugs in Korea', which has become an issue as more and more advanced therapeutics such as cell and/or gene therapies are introduced as a breakthrough treatment option. The forum had four panelists, three of whom represented the pharmaceutical industry and one the Korea Ministry of Health and Welfare. 

It was a coincidental and timely event because Prof. Lee and Yoona Choi have been working an a research project with an aim to increase patient access  to new drugs in Korea. This project was sponsored by the Future Health Network, and the second round of the research project is under discussion. The results of the first round of the project has been published in a peer-reviewed Journal as a research article. 

The details of the forum can be read and watched here.