Takeaways from the R/Pharma Summit at posit::conf(2024)

The R/Pharma Summit at posit::conf(2024) brought together leading minds in pharmaceuticals and data science for an engaging day of discussions on the future of open-source drug development. The topics, crowdsourced by the attendees, highlighted the most pressing and thought-provoking challenges currently facing the industry, sparking valuable insights and dialogue.

The Summit featured a packed agenda. Below are some selected takeaways, and the R/Pharma Roundtable website provides detailed summaries of each conversation.

Agenda

• The Summit began with Aaron Clark (Arcus) and Doug Kelkhoff (Roche) chairing a workshop on “repository-driven consensus”,  a means of delivering consistent, reproducible quality assessments of packages. The slides are available here.
• Natalia Andriychuk (Pfizer) and Nicole Jones (Denali) then chaired a workshop on risk and validation of Shiny apps.
• Next, Katie Igartua (Tempus AI) chaired a reflection on progress and new developments from the past year. The R/Pharma Roundtable website shares a summary of the 2023 F2F Roundtables in Chicago, and the slides from the discussion are available here.
• The day concluded with roundtables featuring several topics, such as Production R Code and change management around AI.

Selected highlights of 2024 F2F Roundtables

• Package validation: Balancing a locked-down environment for long-term stability versus an evolving environment for snapshot validity is crucial. High-quality packages must consider both maintenance and lifecycle, similar to challenges in electronic design automation. As environments become outdated, containerization provides a solution. See the notes on package validation here.
• SAS to R programmer change management: Moving from SAS to R requires intentional management and structured strategies to ensure successful industry-wide adoption of R. Comparative Analysis of Methods and Implementations in SAS, R, and Python (CAMIS) and reference guides are helpful tools for supporting this transition. See the notes on change management here.
• Data storage and processing in clinical trials: The 2023 roundtables identified network drive-based workflows as a major obstacle in modernizing Statistical Computing Environments (SCEs). Discussions focused on the benefits of using Parquet files, APIs, databases, and data lakes to address these challenges. See the notes on SCEs here.

Quotes from Summit attendees

What’s next

We’re excited to see how these discussions will drive real change and shape the future of the industry. To keep the momentum going, register for the R/Pharma conference, taking place October 29-31.