Join the 2024 Pediatric Sepsis Data Challenge to sharpen your data science skills while addressing a critical global health problem! Using a synthetically generated dataset based on real clinical data, you will develop a model to predict in-hospital mortality in children.
Brought to you by the Institute for Global Health, the Pediatric Sepsis Data CoLaboratory (Sepsis CoLab), the World Federation of Pediatric Intensive & Critical Care Societies (WFPICCS), and Duke University, the challenge will open on November 4th, 2024.
Sepsis, a severe response to infection leading to organ dysfunction or death, is a leading cause of mortality in children, particularly in developing countries. In 2017, an estimated 48.9 million cases of sepsis were reported globally, with children accounting for over half of these cases. A staggering 85% of these cases occurred in low- and middle-income countries. Many sepsis-related deaths could be prevented with early detection and timely treatment using simple, highly effective interventions like antimicrobials and fluid resuscitation. The 2024 Pediatric Sepsis Data Challenge was created to help address this critical gap in healthcare.
The data for the 2024 Pediatric Sepsis Data Challenge comes from a deidentified, curated research dataset of a study called “Smart discharges to improve post-discharge health outcomes in children: A prospective before-after study with staggered implementation”. Participants will be provided with a synthetically generated training data set to reduce the risk of patient re-identification. The synthetic training set was generated from a random subset of the original data. Solutions will be evaluated against the remaining original dataset that will be unseen and unavailable to participants.
The challenge is to design and implement a working, open-source algorithm that can predict in-hospital mortality from routinely collected data at the time of presentation to a health facility in Uganda.
The Challenge aims to support global participants in building skills in model development for clinical risk prediction. We encourage the formation of multidisciplinary, international teams, with the hope of catalyzing new collaborations among experienced mentors and novice researchers and mentees. We invite anyone, from those new to data science to veterans of the field, to participate. Participants can include students, faculty, and individuals with various roles in non-profit, academic, government, and industry organizations.
- Everyone can participate – the competition is open to anyone interested!
- Participants must be in teams of 2-5 members*.
- Completion of registration form (one form per team) with information of all members must be submitted by December 11, 2024 11:59 p.m. PT.
- Teams must submit one entry during the preliminary phase to qualify for participation in the active phase.
*Teams of more than 5 members are allowed with permission from the challenge organizers. Please email Charly Huxford with the details of your team if you plan for more than 5 members.
Tips for Finding Team Members:
Solo participants can connect with others on the 2024 Pediatric Sepsis Data Challenge discussion board.
The data challenge will run from November 4th, 2024 to April 28th, 2025.
There are two phases for the Challenge: a preliminary phase and an active phase. The preliminary phase of the Challenge allows us to introduce and ‘beta test’ the data, scores, and submission system before the active phase of the Challenge. Participation in the preliminary phase is mandatory for participating in the active phase of the Challenge because it helps us to improve the active phase. The preliminary phase also gives teams a chance to get acquainted with the data and variables and begin work on creating preliminary algorithms. Teams may submit up to 5 entries during the preliminary phase.
During the active phase, teams will have 10 opportunities over this period to submit an entry. After each round, teams are given results and can submit again.
The challenge officially opens on November 4th.
Teams can sign up for the challenge here. Only one form needs to be completed per team.
Once registered, we will send you a link to the challenge once it is live!
Questions? Contact Charly Huxford (charly.huxford@bcchr.ca).
