The STOIC2021 COVID-19 AI challenge: applying reusable training methodologies to private data
 
The STOIC2021 COVID-19 AI challenge: applying reusable training methodologies to private data 
 
Luuk H. Boulogne, Luuk H. Boulogne, Julian Lorenz, Julian Lorenz, Daniel Kienzle, Daniel Kienzle, Robin Schon, Robin Schon, Katja Ludwig, Katja Ludwig, Rainer Lienhart, Rainer Lienhart, Simon Jegou, Simon Jegou, Guang Li, Guang Li, Cong Chen, Cong Chen, Qi Wang, Qi Wang, Derik Shi, Derik Shi, Mayug Maniparambil, Mayug Maniparambil, Dominik Muller, Dominik Muller, Silvan Mertes, Silvan Mertes, Niklas Schroter, Niklas Schroter, Fabio Hellmann, Fabio Hellmann, Miriam Elia, Miriam Elia, Ine Dirks, Ine Dirks, Matías Bossa, Matías Bossa, Abel Díaz Berenguer, Abel Díaz Berenguer, Tanmoy Mukherjee, Tanmoy Mukherjee, Jef Vandemeulebroucke, Jef Vandemeulebroucke, Hichem Sahli, Hichem Sahli, Nikos Deligiannis, Nikos Deligiannis, Panagiotis Gonidakis, Panagiotis Gonidakis, Ngoc Dung Huynh, Ngoc Dung Huynh, Imran Razzak, Imran Razzak, Reda Bouadjenek, Reda Bouadjenek, Mario Verdicchio, Mario Verdicchio, Pasquale Borrelli, Pasquale Borrelli, Marco Aiello, Marco Aiello, James A. Meakin, James A. Meakin, Alexander Lemm, Alexander Lemm, Christoph Russ, Christoph Russ, Razvan Ionasec, Razvan Ionasec, Nikos Paragios, Nikos Paragios, Bram van Ginneken, Bram van Ginneken, Marie-Pierre Revel Dubois, Marie-Pierre Revel Dubois
 
Abstract 

Challenges drive the state-of-the-art of automated medical image analysis. The quantity of public training data that they provide can limit the performance of their solutions. Public access to the training methodology for these solutions remains absent. This study implements the Type Three (T3) challenge format, which allows for training solutions on private data and guarantees reusable training methodologies. With T3, challenge organizers train a codebase provided by the participants on sequestered training data. T3 was implemented in the STOIC2021 challenge, with the goal of predicting from a computed tomography (CT) scan whether subjects had a severe COVID-19 infection, defined as intubation or death within one month. STOIC2021 consisted of a Qualification phase, where participants developed challenge solutions using 2000 publicly available CT scans, and a Final phase, where participants submitted their training methodologies with which solutions were trained on CT scans of 9724 subjects. The organizers successfully trained six of the eight Final phase submissions. The submitted codebases for training and running inference were released publicly. The winning solution obtained an area under the receiver operating characteristic curve for discerning between severe and non-severe COVID-19 of 0.815. The Final phase solutions of all finalists improved upon their Qualification phase solutions.