December Data Sharing and Reuse Seminar

About this Class

PhysioNet is a data sharing platform that began as an outreach component for an NIH research project in 1999. Rebuilt in 2019 following FAIR principles (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable), the platform has grown rapidly. It now serves over 55,000 registered users around the world with >30TB of data and is heavily used across research, education, and industry. PhysioNet is a recommended repository for journals including the Springer Nature collection, eLife, and PLOS. It also supports regular “datathons” around the world, which bring together clinicians and data scientists to focus on important, unanswered questions in health research. PhysioNet has been a close collaborator of MIT Libraries and it is piloting their data citation service, helping to help establish datasets as primary research objects and to reward those who share. While the vast majority of data on PhysioNet is fully open access, the platform is unique in supporting training requirements and access control where necessary. This allows researchers to share sensitive resources that would not be possible through typical data sharing platforms. Over half of all PhysioNet users (approx 35,000) have been “credentialed”, providing evidence of their identity and training in human research. PhysioNet was recently featured in an ORCID showcase due to its novel use of the ORCID Trust Markers as part of this process. Speakers:

• Dr. Roger Mark

Distinguished Professor in Health Sciences and Technology Institute of Medical Engineering and Science at MIT, and Assistant Pro Dr. Mark is a fellow of the IEEE, a fellow of the American College of Cardiology, and a founding fellow of the American Institute of Medical and Biological Engineering. Dr. Mark’s research activities focus on physiological signal processing and database development, cardiovascular modeling, and critical care decision support and predictive modeling. His group launched and maintains PhysioNet.

• Dr. Tom Pollard

Research Scientist MIT’s Institute of Medical Engineering and Science Dr. Tom Pollard, Ph.D., is a Research Scientist at MIT’s Institute of Medical Engineering and Science, and the Technical Director of PhysioNet. His efforts center on sharing data for use in research, education, and industry, with a focus on critical care. Prior to joining MIT in 2015 he completed an interdisciplinary PhD on computational modeling of patient physiology at University College London, based between Mullard Space Science Laboratory and University College Hospital.