Cindy X. Cai, M.D., M.S., is the Jonathan and Marcia Javitt Rising Professor, Assistant Professor of Ophthalmology at Johns Hopkins University, and a retina specialist seeing patients at the Wilmer Eye Institute. She specializes in medical and surgical retina treatments, including diabetic retinopathy, diabetic macular edema, and age-related macular degeneration.
Dr. Cai graduated summa cum laude from Columbia University and received her medical degree from the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons in New York. She received her master’s degree in health sciences informatics as part of our BIDS program.
The field of ophthalmology was of interest to Dr. Cai because of its tremendous potential for growth and innovation. Dr. Cai received an NIH K grant focusing on how social determinants of health impact diabetic retinopathy care and how informatics solutions can be leveraged to address vision loss from diabetes. She wanted to utilize electronic health record data to identify patients with diabetes who are at high risk for not receiving eye care, experiencing vision loss, and have social risk factors. Dr. Cai’s vision is that the predictive algorithm could be implemented across various institutions to enable a broader approach to tackling vision loss from diabetes. Because of her participation in BIDS, Dr. Cai discovered that the Observational Medical Outcomes Partnership (OMOP) common data model (CDM), a standard for observational health data, could facilitate this goal. “By building a prediction model using the OMOP CDM, I can seamlessly deploy it across any institution or database that also uses the data model.”
Observational Health Data Sciences and Informatics (OHDSI) manages the OMOP CDM. This collaborative, multidisciplinary group has established an international network of researchers and observational health databases. Dr. Cai was selected to lead an OHDSI SOS Challenge study in 2023, which highlighted every step of an OHDSI network study, including design, implementations, execution, and dissemination. Conducting a network study requires extensive work—designing the study, creating the cohorts, solidifying the analysis plan, and executing the analysis packages. But to first arrive at a clinically relevant question, Dr. Cai had to learn about the OMOP CDM, familiarize herself with the analytic tools in OHDSI, review prior studies, and develop an understanding of what can and cannot be addressed within the OHDSI framework. Since then, she has led another OHDSI network study examining the association of semaglutide on nonarteritic anterior ischemic optic neuropathy which was published in JAMA Ophthalmology.
In 2024, Dr. Cai received the OHDSI Titan Award for Clinical Applications for her extraordinary contributions in the OHDSI community in generating clinical evidence that improves health. “I am so grateful to have been introduced to the OHDSI community through the BIDS program,” she says. “The collaborations I’ve formed and work I’ve done in the OHDSI community have been critical to my career development.”
The BIDS team is proud of Dr. Cai’s many accomplishments and looks forward to seeing her work continue shaping the future of eye health.