Janick Weberpals

Janick Weberpals

Instructor in Medicine at Harvard Medical School

Scientific talks and conference contributions

Talks & Outreach (conferences and invited)

  • Let’s Git it started: An introduction to reproducible analytic workflows in real-world evidence using Git. International Society of Pharmacoepidemiology, Virtual Webinar (Sponsored by the Student Council), 18 January 2024.
  • Introducing smdi: An R package to perform structural missing data investigations for real-world evidence studies. R/Pharma Conference, Virtual Presentation, 2023.
  • Principled Approaches To Handle Partially Observed Confounder Data From Electronic Health Records: A Plasmode Simulation Study. 39th International Conference on Pharmacoepidemiology & Therapeutic Risk Management, Halifax, Canada


  • Characterizing Missing Data Processes in EHR Data. FDA SIC All-Center Leadership Meeting, June 7, 2023 (virtual)

  • smdi: An R package to perform routine structural missing data investigations in real-world data. 36th New England Statistics Symposium, Boston University, Boston, MA


  • Issues and Solutions When Estimating Treatment Effects Using US Electronic Health Record Data. Invited panelist together with Sebastian Schneeweiss, Jeremy Rassen, Rebecca Hubbard and Richard Wyss. International Society for Health Economics and Outcomes Research (ISPOR) Annual Meeting, Boston, MA (2023). More information


  • Approaches to handling partially observed confounder data from electronic health records.
    Presentation at the 2023 Sentinel Innovation Day [Invited talk]
  • Landscape Analysis on Techniques to Deal with Missing Data in Longitudinal Healthcare Databases.
    The presentation was part of the pre-conference educational course Advanced Pharmacoepidemiology Methods: Mitigating Missing Data Concerns with External or Internal Subset Validation Populations. 38th International Conference on Pharmacoepidemiology and Therapeutic Risk Management, Copenhagen, Denmark, August 25th 2022. [Educational conference talk]
  • Deep Learning on Electronic Health Records for Research in Pharmacoepidemiology: Examples from The Field of Oncology.
    Invited speaker at FDA Sentinel Innovation and Methods Seminar series on September 7th 2022 [Invited talk].

  • A Systematic Approach Towards Missing Lab Data in Electronic Health Records: A Case Study in Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer and Multiple Myeloma.
    37th International Conference on Pharmacoepidemiology & Therapeutic Risk Management 2021. Pharmacoepidemiol Drug Saf 2021; 30:36-36. [Oral presentation]

  • Deep learning-based propensity scores for confounding control in comparative effectiveness research: a large-scale real-world data study.
    36th International Conference on Pharmacoepidemiology & Therapeutic Risk Management, Berlin, Germany, 2020. Pharmacoepidemiol Drug Saf 2020; 29(S3):382-383 [Oral presentation]

  • Real-world Data Science in Pharmaceutical Research & Early Drug Development.
    Research & Development Career Day and Mentoring Event, German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ), Heidelberg, Germany, December 6th 2019. [Invited talk]

  • Cancer Pharmacoepidemiology: Researching the Diffusion of Innovation.
    University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA, November 14th 2019. [Faculty candidate seminar presentation]

  • Deep learning-based propensity score computation - A methodological approach to constructing synthetic control arms.
    RPF/RiSE Symposium 2019. Basel, September 2nd 2019. [Oral presentation]

  • Deep Learning in Pharmacoepidemiology & Drug Development.
    Mittwochsfortbildung [Clinical advanced training lecture], Department for Clinical Pharmacology and Pharmacoepidemiology, University hospital Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany, August 9th 2019. [Invited talk]

  • Deep Learning on Real-World Data: Overview and Application in Early Drug Development.
    Symposium Clinical Pharmacology & Clinical Pharmacy. Reims, France, June 29th 2019. [Oral presentation]

  • High-dimensional real-world data: chances, challenges and exemplary use cases.
    Global Data Science Conference (Roche internal). Baden-Baden, June 26th 2019. [Oral presentation]

  • Deep Learning-based Propensity Score Computation: Exemplary Cohort Study in Second Line Metastatic Cancer Patients Treated with Cancer Immunotherapy Versus Non-Cancer Immunotherapy.
    10th Workshop of the working group Pharmacoepidemiology of the German Society for Epidemiology (DGEpi). Berlin, May 24th 2019. [Oral presentation]

  • Comparative performance of a modified landmark approach when no time of treatment data are available within oncological databases: exemplary cohort study among resected pancreatic cancer patients.
    9th Workshop of the working group Pharmacoepidemiology of the German Society for Epidemiology (DGEpi). Bremen, June 8th 2018. [Oral presentation]

Posters and others

  • Weberpals J, Fruechtenicht C, Davis R, Huntley M, Oki Y, Wyatt S, Castro F, Trinh H. Patient characteristics, outcomes and potential for bias in oncological real-world data studies with imaging-derived response endpoints. 38th International Conference on Pharmacoepidemiology & Therapeutic Risk Management, Copenhagen, Denmark
    1. Pharmacoepidemiol Drug Saf 2022. (Poster)

  • Sayegh N, Graf RP, Fisher V, Weberpals J, Huang RSP, Lin DI, Gjoerup O, Raskina K, Severson EA, Haberberger JF, Ross JS, Alexander BM, Levy MA, Oxnard GR, Agarwal N. Tumor mutational burden as a predictive biomarker for immune checkpoint inhibitor versus taxane chemotherapy benefit in metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer: A real-world biomarker study. ASCO GU 2022 [Poster]

  • Dienstmann R, Turnbul Cl, Hackshaw Allan, Blay JY, Maud K, Servant N, Geissler J, Tamborero D, Weberpals J, Fear S, Perret S, Perez L, von Meyenn Martina, Le Tourneau C. Conceptualization of core clinico-molecular variables for registries enrolling patients diagnosed with a solid tumor and profiled with next-generation sequencing (NGS). AACR 2022 [Poster]

  • Lenz HJ, Weberpals J, Cremolini C, Grothey A, Leutgeb B, Mahrus S, Nimeiri H, Reyes-Rivera I, Seligmann J, Tabernero J, Tejpar S, Yoshino T, Stintzing S. Utilisation and predictors of genomic testing prior to first-line (1L) therapy in patients (pts) with metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC). ESMO 2021. Ann Oncol 2021; 32(5); S530-S582. [Poster]

  • Loureiro H, Becker T, Bauer-Mehren A, Ahmidi N, Weberpals J. Improving predictive ability of survival models: comparison of multiple state of the art models. 36th International Conference on Pharmacoepidemiology & Therapeutic Risk Management, Berlin, Germany,
    1. Pharmacoepidemiol Drug Saf 2020; 29(S3):35-35 [Oral presentation given by mentee]

  • Weberpals J, Becker T, Schmich, Rüttinger D, Theis FJ, Bauer-Mehren A. Deep learning-based propensity score computation: Cohort study in second line treated advanced non-small cell lung cancer (aNSCLC) patients. 35rd International Conference on Pharmacoepidemiology & Therapeutic Risk Management, Philadelphia, USA, 2019. Pharmacoepidemiol Drug Saf 2019; 28:585-586. [Poster]

  • Weberpals J, Jansen L, Silversmit G, Veerbeck J, van der Geest L, Vissers PAJ, Zadnik V, Brenner H. Comparative performance of a modified landmark approach when no time of treatment data are available within oncological databases: exemplary cohort study among resected pancreatic cancer patients. Pharmacoepidemiol Drug Saf 2018; 27:223-223.

  • Weberpals J, Jansen L, Müller OJ, Brenner H. Long-term heart-specific mortality among 347,476 breast cancer patients treated with radio- or chemotherapy: A registry-based study. Pharmacoepidemiol Drug Saf 2018;27:144-144.

  • Weberpals J, Jansen L, Haefeli WE, Hoffmeister M, Wolkewitz M, Herk-Sukel MPPv, Vissers PAJ, Brenner H. Pre- and post-diagnostic β-blocker use and lung cancer survival: A population-based cohort study. 33rd International Conference on Pharmacoepidemiology & Therapeutic Risk Management, Montréal, Canada, 2017. Pharmacoepidemiol Drug Saf 2017;26: 269-269 [Spotlight Poster]

  • Weberpals J, Jansen L, van Herk-Sukel MPP, Kuiper JG, Aarts MJ, Vissers PAJ, Brenner H. Immortal time bias in pharmacoepidemiological studies on cancer patient survival: empirical illustration for beta-blocker use in four cancers with different prognosis. 33rd International Conference on Pharmacoepidemiology & Therapeutic Risk Management, Montréal, Canada, 2017. Pharmacoepidemiol Drug Saf 2017;26:91-91 [Poster]

  • Muhlack DC, Hoppe LK, Weberpals J, Brenner H, Schottker B. The Association of Potentially Inappropriate Medication at Older Age With Cardiovascular Events and Overall Mortality: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Cohort Studies. Pharmacoepidemiol Drug Saf 2017;26: 173-173 [Poster]

  • Pulte D, Jansen L, Weberpals J, Brenner H. Population Level Survival for Patients with Multiple Myeloma By Insurance Type and Early Indications of Changes with Adoption of the Medicaid Expansion of the Affordable Care Act. Blood 2017;130(Suppl 1): 3438-3438

  • Pulte D, Jansen L, Weberpals J, Brenner H. Updated Population Based Survival Analysis in Patients with Chronic Myeloid Leukemia: Increased Survival but Continued Disparities for Older Patients. Blood 2017;130(Suppl 1): 2192-2192

  • Brunßen A, Jansen L, Eisemann N, Weberpals J, Katalinic A. Recent trends in relative survival from melanoma in Germany stratified by age group, T-stage, and histological subtype. Das Gesundheitswesen 2017;79: V-181.

  • Pulte D, Weberpals J, Jansen L, Katalinic A, Nennecke A, Bernd H, Meike R, Sabine L, Brenner H. Survival of Patients with Rare Plasma Cell or Lymphoplasmacytoid Malignancies in Germany and the United States in the Early 21st Century. Blood 2016;128: 4767-4767.

  • Pulte D, Weberpals J, Jansen L, Katalinic A, Nennecke A, Holleczek B, Ressing M, Luttmann S, Brenner H. Population Level Survival for Patients with Rare Hematologic Malignancies in the United States in the Early 21st Century. Blood 2016;128: 2416-2416.

  • Weberpals J. Beta blockers and cancer prognosis - The role of immortal time bias: A systematic review and meta-analysis. 32nd International Conference on Pharmacoepidemiology & Therapeutic Risk Management, Dublin, Ireland 2016. Pharmacoepidemiol Drug Saf 2016; 25:561-2. [Poster]

  • Weberpals J. Identification of risk factors for drug-induced altered mental status, delirium and psychosis for the development of a predictive risk model. 28th Annual Research Showcase And Awards Recognition Day, University of Florida, College of Pharmacy, Gainesville, FL, United States, 2015. [Poster]