PhysioNet: A FAIR and sustainable data repository - Freely accessible, curated, and annotated clinical and physiological data – and tools to manage and analyze them – are foundational to fully harnessing the promise that machine learning/artificial intelligence (ML/AI) and signal and image processing hold for advancing and personalizing healthcare. Since 1999, PhysioNet has pioneered the free access to large, high-impact, de-identified physiological and clinical databases and associated analysis tools. PhysioNet is a recommended data repository for numerous publishers and the NIH, and its current content of over 350 diverse databases, software packages, and ML/AI models is used extensively across the world. In the past decade, the PhysioNet user community has grown dramatically: In 2023 alone, ~30,000 new users registered for accounts, nearly 7,000 publications referenced PhysioNet and its contents, and over 80 new databases or software packages were published on the platform. With such rapid growth, PhysioNet faces significant challenges in meeting the evolving needs of the community and in managing the growing number of new submissions. Balancing these demands while upholding a rigorous editorial review process is essential to ensure that published projects maintain the high standards of quality expected by the research community. To be able to review, curate, and publish the growing number of contributions submitted to PhysioNet in a timely manner, and to meet the dramatically increasing demand for high-quality databases and analysis tools, the PhysioNet team must adapt its operations. With funding through this U24 mechanism, the team proposes to 1) Streamline access to high-quality content by decreasing the time from contribution through curation to publication, enabling more efficient data discovery, and reducing the time for users to gain access to data resources; 2) Develop pathways for long-term access and sustainability by consolidating PhysioNet with MIT infrastructure and developing models for institutional memberships; and 3) Foster an inclusive and dynamic community that encourages active participation and collaboration among users, researchers, and developers by strengthening community engagement, by developing methods for impact assessment, and by aligning resources and resource development with user needs. Attaining these aims will put PhysioNet on a sustained path of growth, enabling it to keep pace with the exponentially increasing demand for its resources.
