
A committee of experts from top U.S. medical centers and research institutes is harnessing NVIDIA-powered federated learning to evaluate the impact of federated learning and AI-assisted annotation to train AI models for tumor segmentation.
Federated learning is a technique for developing more accurate, generalizable AI models trained on data across diverse data sources without mitigating data security or privacy. It allows several organizations to collaborate on the development of an AI model without sensitive data ever leaving their servers.
Due to privacy and data management constraints, it's growing more and more complicated to share data from site to site and aggregate it in one place - and imaging AI is developing faster than research institutes can set up data-sharing contracts, said John Garrett, associate professor of radiology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Adopting federated learning to build and test models at multiple sites at once is the only way, practically speaking, to keep up. It's an indispensable tool.
Garrett is part of the Society for Imaging Informatics and Medicine (SIIM) Machine Learning Tools and Research Subcommittee, a group of clinicians, researchers and engineers that aims to advance the development and application of AI for medical imaging. NVIDIA is a member of SIIM, and has been collaborating with the committee on federated learning projects since 2019.
Federated learning techniques allow enhanced data privacy and security in compliance with privacy regulations like GDPR, HIPAA and others, said committee chair Khaled Younis. In addition, we see improved model accuracy and generalization.
To support their latest project, the team - including collaborators from Case Western, Georgetown University, the Mayo Clinic, the University of California, San Diego, the University of Florida and Vanderbilt University - tapped NVIDIA FLARE (NVFlare), an open-source framework that includes robust security features, advanced privacy protection techniques and a flexible system architecture.
Through the NVIDIA Academic Grant Program, the committee received four NVIDIA RTX A5000 GPUs, which were distributed across participating research institutes to set up their workstations for federated learning. Additional collaborators used NVIDIA GPUs in the cloud and in on-premises servers, highlighting the flexibility of NVFLare.
Cracking the Code for Federated Learning Each of six participating medical centers provided data from around 50 medical imaging studies for the project, focused on renal cell carcinoma, a kind of kidney cancer.
The idea with federated learning is that during training we exchange the model rather than exchange the data, said Yuankai Huo, assistant professor of computer science and director of the Biomedical Data Representation and Learning Lab at Vanderbilt University.
In a federated learning framework, an initial global model broadcasts model parameters to client servers. Each server uses those parameters to set up a local version of the model that's trained on the organization's proprietary data. Then, updated parameters from each of the local models are sent back to the global model, where they're aggregated to produce a new global model. The cycle repeats until the model's predictions no longer improve with each training round.
The group experimented with model architectures and hyperparameters to optimize for training speed, accuracy and the number of imaging studies required to train the model to the desired level of precision.
AI-Assisted Annotation With NVIDIA MONAI In the first phase of the project, the training data used for the model was labeled manually. For the next phase, the team is using NVIDIA MONAI for AI-assisted annotation to evaluate how model performance differs with training data segmented with the help of AI compared to traditional annotation methods.
The biggest struggle with federated learning activities is typically that the data at different sites is not tremendously uniform. People use different imaging equipment, have different protocols and just label their data differently, said Garrett. By training the federated learning model a second time with the addition of MONAI, we aim to find if that improves overall annotation accuracy.
The team is using MONAI Label, an image-labeling tool that enables users to develop custom AI annotation apps, reducing the time and effort needed to create new datasets. Experts will validate and refine the AI-generated segmentations before they're used for model training.
Data for both the manual and AI-assisted annotation phases is hosted on Flywheel, a leading medical imaging data and AI platform that has integrated NVIDIA MONAI into its offerings.
Once the project is complete, the team plans to publish their methodology, annotated datasets and pretrained model to support future work.
We're interested in not just exploring these tools, Garrett said, but also publishing our work so others can learn and use these tools throughout the medical field.
Apply for an NVIDIA Academic Grant The NVIDIA Academic Grant Program advances academic research by providing world-class computing access and resources to researchers. Applications are now open for full-time faculty members at accredited academic institutions who are using NVIDIA technology to accelerate projects in simulation and modeling, generative AI and large language models.
Future application cycles will focus on projects in data science, graphics and vision, and edge AI - including federated learning.
Most recent headlines
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
04/08/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...
04/07/2026
April 7 2026, 19:00 (PDT) Detective Conan: Fallen Angel of the Highway Opens in...
01/06/2026
January 6 2026, 05:30 (PST) Dolby Sets the New Standard for Premium Entertainment at CES 2026
Throughout the week, Dolby brings to life the latest innovatio...
30/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
30/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
30/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
30/05/2026
Zero in on one that says yes (and no)
Andy Marken May 29, 2026
0 Comments
Hero image courtesy of Deposit Photos
For content creators the most difficu...
29/05/2026
With InfoComm 2026 just weeks away, NDI is giving attendees plenty of reasons to...
29/05/2026
Reaffirming a partnership that has defined Canadian sports broadcasting since 19...
29/05/2026
Mobile/tablet is No. 2 device for watching TV, suggesting that the sports-production industry needs to take another look at the format
Ring Digital's Sprin...
29/05/2026
Berliner Ensemble, one of Berlin's five major theater companies, has expande...
29/05/2026
Solid State Logic will showcase its new compact, fly-away TCA Tour audio product...
29/05/2026
Gerald (Jerry) Pierce, a pioneering technologist who helped shape the digital transformation of the motion picture industry, passed away last month on April 12 ...
29/05/2026
Paramount+ will be the English-language U.S. home for Barclays Women's Super...
29/05/2026
Further strengthening its virtualisation strategy to fully support broadcasters ...
29/05/2026
Swiss broadcaster Canal Alpha has deployed Harmonic's award-winning, software-based XOS Advanced Media Processor to modernize playout operations across cant...
29/05/2026
PTZOptics will showcase a new generation of intelligent video workflows at InfoComm 2026, June 17-19, Las Vegas. Visitors to booth N8227 will see how PTZOptics ...
29/05/2026
Arizona's Family has launched the Arizona's Family Sports (AZFS) streaming app, a new direct-to-consumer destination for live, local sports. The app is ...
29/05/2026
Starting in 2027, DAZN will be the exclusive home of The Canadian Football Leagu...
29/05/2026
Comcast Business has detailed the advanced network infrastructure it has deploye...
29/05/2026
In two-day event, leaders from academia and industry explored solutions to chall...
29/05/2026
The Basketball Tournament (TBT), now entering their 13th year of competition, ha...
29/05/2026
Roku has launched FOX One as a Premium Subscription on The Roku Channel in the U.S. Roku customers can now subscribe to FOX One using their Roku account for liv...
29/05/2026
In its sixth year, the broadcaster's coverage has become a global brand and ...
29/05/2026
Ratings Roundup is a rundown of recent ratings news and is derived from press re...
29/05/2026
The days are getting longer, the temperatures are rising, and playlists are filling up for the season. With summer around the corner, Spotify's global edito...
29/05/2026
New retro-inspired MPC announced
There are few devices that have gained the status held by Akai Pro's MPC range, and in recent years, the company have s...
29/05/2026
Save up to 30 on acclaimed titles
Following a successful launch at Superbooth 2026, Bjooks have revealed that they will be continuing the Kickstarter campa...
29/05/2026
Binaural monitoring application improved
Genelec have just released an update that brings some powerful new features to their HRTF-based binaural headphone ...
29/05/2026
6 June 2026 at SAE Institute, London, UK
IMSTA FESTA 2026 is almost upon us, with some of the biggest names in pro-audio set to descend upon SAE Institute i...
29/05/2026
Gerald (Jerry) Pierce, a pioneering technologist who helped shape the digital transformation of the motion picture industry, died April 12, 2026, at his home in...
29/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
29/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
29/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
29/05/2026
Comparing 5 AI Video Enhancers for Restoring Old Video Quality
Kate Luvis May 29, 2026
0 Comments
Digitizing VHS, MiniDV, and other legacy formats doe...
29/05/2026
Studio Hamburg Builds New Post Pipeline with DaVinci Resolve Studio
Brie Clayton May 29, 2026
0 Comments
Workflow replaces a patchwork of legacy tools...
29/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
29/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
29/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
29/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
29/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
29/05/2026
At the Intersection of Music and Dance, an Epic Collaboration Boston Conservatory musicians and dancers found creative parallels in their recent performance o...
29/05/2026
May 29 2026, 09:00 (PDT) Dolby and rednote Bring More Immersive Storytelling to...
29/05/2026
Something fundamental has shifted in how people consume media. Audiences aren't abandoning television or radio content; they're just expanding how, wher...
29/05/2026
Youtube exclusive special drops today
Watch now
UKTV today announces another e...
29/05/2026
Back to All News
The Official Trailer of Physical 100 Italy, on Netflix From Se...
29/05/2026
Genelec announces V2.1 for Aural ID binaural headphone monitoring application posted: 29/05/2026
Aural ID 2.1 enhances binaural monitoring for stereo and ...
29/05/2026
At just 20 years old, Sean Melia from Summerhill Co. Meath has been revealed as the winner of Super Garden 2026. Sean is the youngest ever contestant and winner...