2007 News

The MIMIC-II project has contributed software for deidentification of free text in medical records, and a corpus of deidentified text that can be used for development and evaluation of deidentifcation software.

Papers by the participants in the PhysioNet/Computers in Cardiology Challenge 2007 are now available, and the reference interpretations used to score the Challenge entries have also been posted.

A new version of the XView toolkit is compatible with the most recent version of X.org's X11 libraries, allowing applications that use XView, such as WAVE and Semia, to be run on Fedora 8.

The St. Vincent's University Hospital / University College Dublin Sleep Apnea Database has been contributed to PhysioNet. This database contains 25 full overnight polysomnograms with simultaneous three-channel Holter ECG, from adult subjects with suspected sleep-disordered breathing.

We congratulate the winners of the PhysioNet / Computers in Cardiology Challenge 2007: Mohamed Mneimneh, Hamid SadAbadi, and Masood Ghasemi. Thanks to all who participated, and who contributed data and expertise to make this event possible.

The long-axis LV model of case 3, needed for the additional challenge event 5, has been corrected. The deadline for submitting entries for event 5 only has been extended to noon GMT on Thursday, 27 September 2007. The deadline for all other events in this challenge remains noon GMT on Sunday, 23 September 2007.

The Non-Invasive Fetal Electrocardiogram Database, a series of 55 multichannel abdominal fetal ECG recordings taken from a single subject over a period of 20 weeks, has been contributed to PhysioBank. The recordings are in EDF+ format, and include two thoracic (maternal ECG) signals and three or four abdominal (maternal+fetal ECG) signals.

AF-VP, a model for generating RR intervals in atrial fibrillation, has been contributed to PhysioNet.

An extensive comparison of eleven previously described algorithms for cardiac output estimation from arterial blood pressure waveforms has been contributed to PhysioNet. The package includes implementations of each algorithm in Matlab, a selection of records from the MIMIC-II database that contain ABP waveforms and "gold standard" thermodilution cardiac output measurements, and a comprehensive discussion of calibration techniques, evaluation methods, and rankings of the algorithms.

If a standard PhysioNet search doesn't yield what you are looking for, try a PhysioNet GSearch (a customized version of Google's search). See the search help page for PhysioNet GSearch and other options. [Update (13 November 2007): PhysioNet GSearch is now the standard search. The original ht://Dig-based search is still available on the Advanced Search and search help pages.]

The storage and computational capacities of the master PhysioNet server have been upgraded following a comprehensive set of tests. The digitized signals, trends, and alarms of 2769 long-term records of the MIMIC-II Database are now available thanks to the greatly expanded capacity of the new server.

Detailed geometric models of the heart, lungs, and torso, including a long-axis LV model, are now available for case 3 only. These have been prepared by A. van Oosterom and P. van Dam, who have also prepared a similarly detailed analysis of the infarct geometry for this case based on gadolinium-enhanced MR images. An additional challenge event that has been made possible by this analysis. The detailed models, and Matlab software for viewing them, are available here.

The creators of the Long-Term ST Database have now contributed all of it (86 complete records) to PhysioNet. Each record is 21 to 24 hours long, and contains 2 or 3 ECG signals, annotated beat-by-beat and with respect to ST episodes, rhythm changes, and signal quality changes.

The Spontaneous Ventricular Tachyarrhythmia Database (Version 1.0 from Medtronic, Inc.) contains 135 pairs of RR interval time series, recorded by implanted cardioverter defibrillators in 78 subjects. One series of each pair includes a spontaneous episode of ventricular tachycardia or ventricular fibrillation, and the other is a sample of the intrinsic (usually sinus) rhythm.

A new implementation of CVSim, a cardiovascular simulator that has been used for education and research at MIT and Harvard Medical School for over 20 years, has been contributed to PhysioNet by its authors. CVSim can be launched directly from a web browser with no installation required in most cases.

The eighth annual PhysioNet/Computers in Cardiology Challenge has begun. This year's Challenge embraces the disciplines of both electrocardiography and (for the first time) imaging. Participants will estimate the location and extent of infarcts using ECG maps, and their estimates will be evaluated using "gold standard" measurements of gadolinium-enhanced MRI data.