Unofficial phase deadline for the PhysioNet Challenge 2026

[PhysioNet Challenge]

Dear Challengers,

I am writing to remind you that the deadline for the unofficial phase (9th April) is just over two weeks away, and the deadline for Computing in Cardiology abstracts (15th April) is just over three weeks away! Please submit an unofficial phase entry this week, and not in the hours or minutes before the deadline, in case an unexpected issue arises:

http://physionetchallenges.org/2026/submissions/

Most first attempts fail for mundane reasons, but we do not have the capacity to debug last-minute issues or the ability to accept changes after the submission deadline, regardless of the reason, because of the large number of entries that we receive just before the deadline. Teams must have at least one successful entry during the unofficial phase of the Challenge and an accepted CinC abstract to be eligible to be ranked at the end of the Challenge.

Please note that your Challenge abstract won’t be judged on the quality of your results, but rather on the coherence of your proposal of what you and your method will do. In particular, please be descriptive about your method; the reviewers know about the background to the Challenge, but they will not know about your insights and methodology, so please be specific and concrete. Moreover, we don't expect high scores at this point, and you can report cross-validated scores on the training set if you don't have scores on the validation set, but your abstract should be especially well written if you don't have a successful submission. Importantly, we expect and hope that your approach will continue to evolve over the several months, and you will be able to update your work, so we know that the approach described in your abstract submission will not be the same as your final approach at the end of the Challenge. Please see this page for more information about how to write a compelling abstract:

https://physionetchallenges.org/2026/#abstracts

Your participation during the unofficial phase of the Challenge is also invaluable for helping us to improve the Challenge before the official phase. Every year, we receive insightful feedback that we can't implement because it's too late, so please submit your entries and share your insights now so that we can incorporate them into the Challenge. As always, we already have  changes planned for the official phase, and we hope that you will share your feedback now so that we can make more.

For more updates on the Challenge and announcements, please visit our website and the Challenge discussion forum:
https://physionetchallenges.org/2026/
https://groups.google.com/g/physionet-challenges

We look forward to receiving your submissions to the Challenge.

Best,
Matt
(On behalf of the Challenge team.)

Please post questions and comments in the forum. However, if your question reveals information about your entry, then please email info at physionetchallenge.org. We may post parts of our reply publicly if we feel that all Challengers should benefit from it. We will not answer emails about the Challenge to any other address. This email is maintained by a group. Please do not email us individually.