# Training neural networks with synthetic electrocardiograms

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2111.06175 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2111.06175/

## Key facts

- No citing papers in the map yet (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 8 of its 28 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 11 Nov 2021.

## Builds on (most cited first, 8 of 8)

- [Adam: A Method for Stochastic Optimization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1412.6980/) (2014)
- [Domain Randomization for Transferring Deep Neural Networks from Simulation to the Real World](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1703.06907/) (2017)
- [The Future of Digital Health with Federated Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2003.08119/) (2020)
- [Training Deep Networks with Synthetic Data: Bridging the Reality Gap by Domain Randomization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1804.06516/) (2018)
- [Sim-to-Real via Sim-to-Sim: Data-efficient Robotic Grasping via Randomized-to-Canonical Adaptation Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1812.07252/) (2018)
- [Structured Domain Randomization: Bridging the Reality Gap by Context-Aware Synthetic Data](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1810.10093/) (2018)
- [DENS-ECG: A Deep Learning Approach for ECG Signal Delineation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2005.08689/) (2020)
- [ECG Arrhythmia Classification Using Transfer Learning from 2-Dimensional Deep CNN Features](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1812.04693/) (2018)

## Abstract (arXiv)

We present a method for training neural networks with synthetic electrocardiograms that mimic signals produced by a wearable single lead electrocardiogram monitor. We use domain randomization where the synthetic signal properties such as the waveform shape, RR-intervals and noise are varied for every training example. Models trained with synthetic data are compared to their counterparts trained with real data. Detection of r-waves in electrocardiograms recorded during different physical activities and in atrial fibrillation is used to compare the models. By allowing the randomization to increase beyond what is typically observed in the real-world data the performance is on par or superseding the performance of networks trained with real data. Experiments show robust performance with different seeds and training examples on different test sets without any test set specific tuning. The method makes possible to train neural networks using practically free-to-collect data with accurate labels without the need for manual annotations and it opens up the possibility of extending the use of synthetic data on cardiac disease classification when disease specific a priori information is used in the electrocardiogram generation. Additionally the distribution of data can be controlled eliminating class imbalances that are typically observed in health related data and additionally the generated data is inherently private.