Replica Analytics, in collaboration with Health City, brings to you the 2021 Synthetic Data Summit. This focused event will present how synthetic data enables academia and the life sciences industry to responsibly use health data in research as well as product development and launch efforts. Protecting privacy is a key requirement providing secondary access to help data. One of the primary benefits of synthetic data is that it is privacy protective – it is not considered to be personal information. We now have a powerful tool to democratize access to health information in a responsible way. The Summit will explore current applications of synthetic data generation methods for data reuse and sharing, as well as looking ahead to what the future of synthetic data may look like with the rapid advancements in artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML). Three perspectives will be provided: academia, the life sciences industry, and funders. Agenda: 1. Synthetic Data: The Future of Data Sharing A brief introduction to the Summit and its objectives. Presenters: Khaled El Emam, Professor, School of Epidemiology and Public Health, University of Ottawa; Senior Scientist, CHEO Research Institute; and CEO, Replica Analytics 2. The Alberta Synthetic Data Project We will kick off the Summit with a presentation of the Alberta Synthetic Data Project, to explore how synthetic data is currently being applied in the area of life sciences. Presenters: – Dean Eurich, Professor, School of Public Health, University of Alberta – Lucy Mosquera, Director of Data Science, Replica Analytics Moderator: – Khaled El Emam, Professor, School of Epidemiology and Public Health, University of Ottawa; Senior Scientist, CHEO Research Institute; and CEO, Replica Analytics 3. Panel: Uses of Synthetic Data by the Life Sciences Industry In this panel, we will hear from a number of life science companies (Merck, Novartis and Janssen) on how data synthesis is solving their companies’ data sharing and reuse problems. Experiences with synthetic data at these three pharmaceutical companies will be discussed. Presenters: – Virginie Giroux, M.Sc., Director, Patient Access & HEOR, Merck – Stephen Bamford, Head of Clinical Data Standards & Transparency, The Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies of Johnson & Johnson – Janice Branson, Global Head of Advanced Methodology & Data Science, Novartis Moderator: – Reg Joseph, CEO, Health City 4. How Synthetic Data Will Transform Health Research and Innovation Organizations that fund research have a strong interest in enabling data sharing. They fund many research projects in which data is collected and want to make that data useful and used as broadly as possible, while ensuring that the privacy of participants is protected. Synthetic data is one of technologies that some funding agencies are looking at to solve this problem. The purpose of this session is to understand the problem that funding agencies are trying to solve, how they see synthetic data solving that problem, and what their longer-term vision is on the value of synthetic data and how will they make that vision a reality. Presenters: – Karen Cuenco, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation Moderator: – Khaled El Emam, Professor, School of Epidemiology and Public Health, University of Ottawa; Senior Scientist, CHEO Research Institute; and CEO, Replica Analytics 5. Closing Remarks Presenters: Khaled El Emam, Professor, School of Epidemiology and Public Health, University of Ottawa; Senior Scientist, CHEO Research Institute; and CEO, Replica Analytics