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PhysioNet · PhysioBank · PhysioToolkit |
In cooperation with the annual Computers in Cardiology conference, PhysioNet hosts a series of challenges, inviting participants to tackle clinically interesting problems that are either unsolved or not well-solved.
In complementary ways, PhysioNet and Computers in Cardiology (CinC) catalyze and support scientific communication and collaboration between basic and clinical scientists. The annual meetings of CinC are gatherings of researchers from many nations and disciplines, bridging the geographic and specialty chasms that separate understanding from practice, while PhysioNet provides on-line data and software resources that support collaborations of basic and clinical researchers throughout the year. The annual PhysioNet/CinC Challenges seek to provide stimulating yet friendly competitions, while at the same time offering both specialists and non-specialists alike opportunities to make progress on significant open problems whose solutions may be of profound clinical value. The use of shared data provided via PhysioNet makes it possible for participants to work independently toward a common objective. At CinC, participants can make meaningful results-based comparisons of their methods; lively and well-informed discussions are the norm at scientific sessions dedicated to these challenges. Discovery of the complementary strengths of diverse approaches to a problem when coupled with deep understanding of that problem frequently sparks new collaborations and opportunities for further study. |
A new challenge topic is announced each year. For each challenge, we assemble the raw materials needed to begin work, and we post them here on PhysioNet. In several of these challenges, these raw materials consisted of a database of signals to be analyzed; the analyses were provided for half of the data (the "learning set") in each case, and the challenge was to analyze the other half (the "test set").
Each challenge begins when the announcement is posted here, and ends in mid-September just prior to the Computers in Cardiology conference. An important milestone for participants is the deadline for submitting abstracts for Computers in Cardiology, which is usually 1 May each year. Those wishing to qualify as official entrants, with eligibility for awards, must submit an abstract describing their work as well as an entry for scoring by this deadline. A limited number of revised entries may be submitted between 1 May and the final challenge deadline in mid-September.
Challenges are open to all. Participants submit entries via this web site and receive scores by return e-mail. You may enter and receive scores for any of the challenges at any time, even after the final challenge deadline has passed. (The number of entries you may submit for each challenge is limited by the rules for that challenge, however.)
When the structure of the challenge permits, the top scores (including those of both official and unofficial entrants) are posted anonymously during the challenge period. The top-scoring eligible participant in each challenge event will receive an award at that year's Computers in Cardiology conference.
After the final challenge deadline, we post the names of the top scorers, their scores, the number of entries they submitted in order to achieve their scores, and (for the official entrants) the abstracts they submitted to Computers in Cardiology in order to qualify.
By presenting these challenges, we aim to stimulate work on important clinical problems and to foster rapid progress towards their solution. Collaborations among those who have developed complementary approaches to challenge problems are easily established. We consider it especially significant that many of those who have participated in these challenges would not otherwise have had access to the data needed to study these topics. By bringing with them the insights and methods they have acquired from their own areas of expertise, these researchers enrich our fields of interest. We look forward to future challenges, and invite you to join in!
What will be the topic of the next challenge? It might be image analysis, or simulation, or forecasting.... An ideal challenge problem is interesting, clinically important, and possible to study using available materials that have not been widely circulated previously. Moreover, there must be an objective way to evaluate the quality of a challenge entry (for an analysis problem, this usually means there must be a known set of correct analyses of the data, i.e., a "gold standard" against which entries can be compared).
What should be the topic of next year's challenge? Do you have a data set that can help in creating a challenge? Please send us your ideas!
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Updated Saturday, 24 October 2009 at 01:04 EDT