2009 News

Prepare for the PhysioNet/Computers in Cardiology Challenge 2010, Mind the Gap! A set of training data is now available. The Challenge begins on 1 January.

If you have any questions or comments regarding this challenge, please post it directly in our Community Discussion Forum. This will increase transparency (benefiting all the competitors) and ensure that all the challenge organizers see your question.

Papers presented at CinC 2009 by challenge participants, scores, and sources for the open-source entries, are now available.

The Challenge has concluded, and the correct classifications for event 1 and event 2 are now available (follow the links). In addition, the c records (the data following T₀ for each of the test set records, which have been withheld for the duration of the Challenge) are now available in the same locations as the a and b records that have been available since April.

Thanks to all of the Challenge participants, many of whom will discuss their work during dedicated scientific sessions of Computers in Cardiology next week. A number of participants were able to classify all 10 cases in event 1 without errors; many were able to classify at least 80% of cases in event 2, and the best result achieved in event 2 was correct classification of 93% (37 of 40) cases. The final scores, and the open source software developed and contributed by participants in the open source division of the Challenge, will be posted shortly after CinC.

Special thanks to Franco Chiarugi, whose invaluable feedback at every stage prompted corrections in the training set and improvements in the design of the challenge that contributed significantly to its success.

The clinical data that accompany the test set records are now available (in the same locations as the test set waveforms and numerics records). Also note that the CinC abstract deadline has been extended to 8 May 2009 and we have thus been able to extend the first entry deadline to 6 May 2009. If you miss these deadlines, you are still welcome to participate, but you will be ineligible for an award. If you submit your first entry on or before the deadline, you may revise it (see restrictions below) until the final entry deadline of 31 August 2009.

PhysioBank's Automated Teller Machine, a self-service facility for exploring PhysioBank using a web browser, is now on-line. Replacing the original PhysioBank web services introduced in 2000, the ATM offers a variety of tools for visualizing PhysioBank data and converting them to text, EDF, or .mat files, and more.

The 10th annual PhysioNet/Computers in Cardiology Challenge is underway. Participants are invited to identify which ICU patients are likely to experience sudden and severe drops in blood pressure. Successful prediction of these acute hypotensive events may lead to improved care and survival of patients at risk. The Challenge culminates in September with presentations by participants at a dedicated scientific session of Computers in Cardiology in Park City, Utah.