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feat: ✨ post on publishing osdc (#187)
# Description Closes #182 This PR needs an in-depth review. ## Checklist - [x] Formatted Markdown - [x] Ran `just run-all` --------- Co-authored-by: Signe Kirk Brødbæk <[email protected]>
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posts/published-osdc/index.qmd

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---
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title: "Published our first externally collaborated R package, osdc"
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description: |
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Over the last two years, we've collaborated with a researcher at Steno Aarhus on building an
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R package called osdc. This package, titled
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*Open Source Diabetes Classifier*, classifies diabetes status in the
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Danish registers. And finally, we've published it to CRAN!
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author:
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- Luke W. Johnston
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date: "2025-12-18"
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categories:
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- packaging
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- publishing
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- programming
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---
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On December 10th, 2025, we finally published our first R package to
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[CRAN](https://cran.r-project.org/)! :tada:
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The package is called
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[osdc](https://cran.r-project.org/web/packages/osdc/index.html), or
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"Open Source Diabetes Classifier", and it is our first package that
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we've built in collaboration with an external researcher, [Anders Aasted
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Isaksen](https://www.stenoaarhus.dk/kontakt/anders-aasted-isaksen/). He
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developed an algorithm to classify type 1 and type 2 diabetes using
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Danish registers as data sources, and we worked together to turn this
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algorithm into an R package that others can use. We started the
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collaboration back in 2023, and after a lot of work, we finally got it
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to a stage that we could publish a first version to CRAN.
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The package has two aims (as described in the package
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[documentation](https://steno-aarhus.github.io/osdc/)):
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1. To provide an open-source, code-based algorithm to classify type 1
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and type 2 diabetes using Danish registers as data sources. There
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are other diabetes algorithms developed in Denmark for the
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registers, but they are not open source nor packaged into a reusable
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format.
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2. To inspire discussions within the Danish register-based research
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space on the openness and ease of use on the existing tooling and
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registers, and on the need for an official process for updating or
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contributing to existing data sources.
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## Who is it for and why use it?
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The main reason for building the osdc package was to provide a tool for
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researchers doing diabetes research with Danish register data to
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classify diabetes. There are no Danish registers that fully captures the
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different ways that a person could be classified with diabetes, as
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administrative diagnosis data is not always complete nor accurate. So,
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researchers have had to develop different algorithms to get a better
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idea of who has diabetes in the Danish registers.
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However, these algorithms have not been open source, and they have not
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been packaged into reusable tools. Which has lead to many researchers
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having different "in-house" solutions for their group or organisation
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that other groups can't really use effectively. We wanted to change
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that.
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So, we built the osdc package with all the necessary details for
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researchers to classify diabetes status in their own Danish register
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data. For example, the package provides a list of which registers and
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variables are needed with the use of the `registers()` function. Other
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than a few other helper functions, the main function of the package is
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`classify_diabetes()`, which takes all the required registers and
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outputs a data frame with a list of individuals, their diabetes status,
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and the date when the classification was made.
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Aside from those functions, the package provides an `algorithm()`
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function that lists all the specific criteria used in the algorithm.
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This makes it easier for others to assess how exactly the algorithm
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classifies diabetes.
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The next step is to start using the osdc package in collaborating
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projects that use Denmark Statistics and register data :tada:

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