Date added: 23.7.2010	Hot Hits: 82
Version:  Not applicable  mature	Submitter:  George Moody  This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it  Web Site	License:  GPL v2
	Target user group: Researchers; Students	Technology type:  Online service
Website		Categories: Data Hosting Facilities | How to access compute resources | Collaborative Services

The PhysioNet Resource, established in 1999, is intended to stimulate current research and new investigations in the study of complex biomedical and physiologic signals.  Each year, about 500 scholarly papers are published that make use of data or software found on PhysioNet.  The Resource has three closely interdependent components:

PhysioBank is a large and growing archive of well-characterized digital recordings of physiologic signals, time series, and related data for use by the biomedical research community. PhysioBank currently includes more than 50 collections of cardiopulmonary, neural, and other biomedical signals from healthy subjects and patients with a variety of conditions with major public health implications, including sudden cardiac death, congestive heart failure, epilepsy, gait disorders, sleep apnea, and aging. These collections include data from a wide range of studies, as developed and contributed by members of the research community.

PhysioToolkit is a large and growing library of software for physiologic signal processing and analysis, detection of physiologically significant events using both classical techniques and novel methods based on statistical physics and nonlinear dynamics, interactive display and characterization of signals, creation of new databases, simulation of physiologic and other signals, quantitative evaluation and comparison of analysis methods, and analysis of nonequilibrium and nonstationary processes. A unifying theme of many of the research projects that contribute software to PhysioToolkit is the extraction of ``hidden'' information from biomedical signals, information that may have diagnostic or prognostic value in medicine, or explanatory or predictive power in basic research. All PhysioToolkit software is available in source form under the GNU General Public License (GPL). 

PhysioNet is not only the name of the Resource, but also of its web site, physionet.org. The PhysioNet web site was established by the Resource as its mechanism for free and open dissemination and exchange of recorded biomedical signals and open-source software for analyzing them, by providing facilities for cooperative analysis of data and evaluation of proposed new algorithms. In addition to providing free electronic access to PhysioBank data and PhysioToolkit software, the PhysioNet web site offers service and training via on-line tutorials to assist users at entry and more advanced levels. In cooperation with the annual Computing in Cardiology conference, PhysioNet hosts a series of challenges, in which researchers and students address unsolved problems of clinical or basic scientific interest using data and software provided by PhysioNet.

All data included in PhysioBank, and all software included in PhysioToolkit, are carefully reviewed. PhysioNet invites members of the VPH community to participate in the ongoing review process. By sharing common data sets, and software in source form, the research community benefits from access to materials that have been rigorously scrutinized by many investigators. PhysioNet further invites clinicians and researchers to contribute data and software for review and possible inclusion in PhysioBank and PhysioToolkit.

PhysioNet also offers services for researchers who are required to develop and implement data sharing plans in accordance with the NIH Data Sharing Policy, and for other researchers who wish to make the data they collect available via PhysioNet.  Often researchers may need to control access to the data for a limited time. By building a protected data archive using PhysioNet's services from the outset of a project, researchers can back up their data securely as they are gathered, while sharing them with their collaborators world-wide. At the conclusion of the project, the data set is ready to be shared with the broader research community, to stimulate and support further work. 

Author(s): 

Publication(s):  PhysioBank, PhysioToolkit, and PhysioNet: Components of a new research resource for complex physiologic signals  PhysioNet: A Web-Based Resource for the Study of Physiologic Signals  

Documentation: 

See http://physionet.org/physiotour for an overview of PhysioNet for first-time visitors.  Answers to many frequently asked questions can be found in the FAQ, http://physionet.org/faq.shtml .

To begin an exploration of PhysioNet's collections of data (PhysioBank), see http://physionet.org/physiobank/physiobank-intro.shtml .

To learn about PhysioNet's collection of open-source software (PhysioToolkit), see http://physionet.org/physiotools/getting-started.shtml .

PhysioNet's annual series of challenges invite researchers and students to address unsolved or poorly-solved problems of clinical or basic research interest;  see http://physionet.org/challenge/ .  Past challenges have included detecting sleep apnea from the ECG and predicting acute hypotenive episodes in the ICU.

About 20 tutorials and 5 book-length reference guides provide hands-on introductions to the data and software available from PhysioNet;  see http://physionet.org/tutorials/ for links to all of them.

Users:  See http://physionet.org/contributors/

Future development plans:  Several new collections of physiologic signals are added to PhysioBank each year, and the PhysioToolkit software collection is
expanded and updated frequently. Annual challenges begin in the winter and conclude in September each year.

See http://physionet.org/coming-soon.shtml for information about projects that are nearing completion.

Support available:  This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it     

Funding status:  National Institutes of Health
National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIH-NIBIB)
National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIH-NIGMS)