Transforming patient care with biomedical data

Biomedical tests such as EEGs and ECGs provide valuable information for diagnosing and treating a wide variety of conditions from cardiac disorders to epilepsy. But challenges in storing and sharing this data limit their full potential. An upcoming international standard promises to change this by enabling secure, interoperable exchange of biomedical waveforms - improving patient outcomes and advancing research.

Imagine being diagnosed with a neurological condition such as epilepsy and deciding to get a second opinion at another clinic. Without access to compatible software, the new specialist may be unable to review your original EEG recordings. Instead of building on previous tests, you may need to repeat them, which is costly, time consuming and stressful.

EEGs are notoriously difficult to interpret, notes neurologist Jonathan Halford. I have seen patients prescribed anti-seizure medication when they shouldn't have been, because their EEG was misinterpreted.

This challenge is widespread, not just for EEGs but also for ECGs, sleep studies and many other physiological recordings. Access to these data depends on proprietary formats and manufacturer-specific software. In some cases, test results are only in paper form.

Not having a standard storage and transmission format causes multiple problems, adds Halford. This has been a frustrating thing in EEG and sleep studies for a long time.

This issue was resolved for medical imaging such as MRIs many years ago through DICOM (Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine), the international standard for storing, transmitting, and managing medical imaging data. Widespread adoption of this standard ensures interoperability across devices and software platforms.

Now physiological waveform data-such as EEGs, ECGs, EMGs and sleep recordings-is taking a similar path towards interoperability. A joint IEC, ISO and ITU initiative, in collaboration with DICOM, is developing ISO/IEC 23003-8. Together with new DICOM standards for biomedical waveforms, the standard will define an interoperable format for efficient compression, transmission and storage of biomedical waveform signals such as EEGs and ECGs. The new standard is now entering its final approval process, with publication expected by early 2027.

For patients, this means easier access to second opinions and continuity of care. For healthcare professionals, it reduces dependence on single vendors, comparison of historical data, improved compression performance and greater ability to integrate AI-based analysis tools. For researchers, it makes it easier to combine data from different institutions to uncover new insights into disease.

Standardization may also improve privacy protection. When data exists in many different proprietary formats, if personal information must be removed, organizations must develop separate methods for removing personal information from each one. A common format makes it easier to create reliable de-identification tools that work consistently across datasets.

In addition to its use in the medical field, ISO/IEC 23003-8, will also provide the first international standard for the carriage of general types of one-dimensional waveform data acquired by sensors such as seismic data. In this way it is expected that the standard will be of value also for the broader scientific community which is shifting more towards data-centric methods.

Although the technology behind ISO/IEC 23003-8 is highly technical, its goal is simple: to make valuable health information easier to share, store and use. This will enable doctors to make better-informed decisions, accelerate the development of new AI-assisted tools and improve medical and potentially other areas of research worldwide.

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