2006 News

Papers describing the entries in the PhysioNet/Computers in Cardiology Challenge 2006 are now available, as are the final gold-standard QT measurements for the Challenge database.

The PhysioNet/Computers in Cardiology Challenge 2006 attracted 41 participants, 19 of whom presented papers describing their methods for QT interval measurement at CinC in Valencia. The best score achieved by a manually reviewed entry was 6.67 ms (raw score: 6.65 ms, yield: 0.998), submitted by Mariano Llamedo Soria of the Universidad Tecnologica Nacional FRBA, Buenos Aires, Argentina. In all, seven entries in division 1 received scores below 20 ms. The best score achieved by an automated method was 16.34 ms (raw score: 15.53 ms, yield: 0.951), submitted by Dieter Hayn of ARC Seibersdorf Research GmbH, Graz, Austria. This entry achieved seventh place overall. The best score achieved by an open source automated method was 17.33 ms (raw score: 17.30 ms, yield: 0.998), by Yuriy Chesnokov of the Unilever Centre for Molecular Science Informatics, Cambridge University. This entry achieved ninth place overall, and second among all automated methods. In all, three entrants in divisions 2 and 3 earned scores below 20 ms, and six more received scores below 30 ms. An unofficial entry formed by combining the results of the three top entries in each of divisions 2 and 3 achieved a score of 10.93 ms (raw score: 10.39 ms, yield 0.951).

Digitized signals from over 1000 long-term records of the MIMIC-II Database are now available in PhysioBank. These recordings from patients in intensive care units typically include ECG, ABP, and respiration signals, and are up to several weeks in duration.

The new wfdb-swig software package makes it easy to read and write PhysioBank files with your own software written in Java, Perl, or Python. The package provides access to the WFDB subroutine library, which also supports software written in C, C++, and Fortran, as well as Matlab (via the WFDB_tools package).