# Optimizing Neural Network Scale for ECG Classification

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2308.12492 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2308.12492/

## Key facts

- Cited by 2 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 15 of its 43 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 24 Aug 2023.

## Builds on (most cited first, 15 of 15)

- [Deep Residual Learning for Image Recognition](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1512.03385/) (2015)
- [Adam: A Method for Stochastic Optimization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1412.6980/) (2014)
- [EfficientNet: Rethinking Model Scaling for Convolutional Neural Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1905.11946/) (2019)
- [mixup: Beyond Empirical Risk Minimization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1710.09412/) (2017)
- [Wide Residual Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1605.07146/) (2016)
- [RandAugment: Practical automated data augmentation with a reduced search space](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1909.13719/) (2019)
- [Ray: A Distributed Framework for Emerging AI Applications](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1712.05889/) (2017)
- [Population Based Training of Neural Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1711.09846/) (2017)
- [Large Kernel Matters -- Improve Semantic Segmentation by Global Convolutional Network](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1703.02719/) (2017)
- [Automatic diagnosis of the 12-lead ECG using a deep neural network](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1904.01949/) (2019)
- [Deep Learning for ECG Analysis: Benchmarks and Insights from PTB-XL](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2004.13701/) (2020)
- [Revisiting ResNets: Improved Training and Scaling Strategies](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2103.07579/) (2021)
- [Cardiologist-Level Arrhythmia Detection with Convolutional Neural Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1707.01836/) (2017)
- [ECG arrhythmia classification using a 2-D convolutional neural network](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1804.06812/) (2018)
- [Receptive Field Regularization Techniques for Audio Classification and Tagging with Deep Convolutional Neural Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2105.12395/) (2021)

## Built on by (most cited first, 2 of 2)

- [Simulator and Experience Enhanced Diffusion Model for Comprehensive ECG Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2511.09895/) (2025)
- [TADA: Temporal Adversarial Data Augmentation for Time Series Data](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2407.15174/) (2024)

## Abstract (arXiv)

We study scaling convolutional neural networks (CNNs), specifically targeting Residual neural networks (ResNet), for analyzing electrocardiograms (ECGs). Although ECG signals are time-series data, CNN-based models have been shown to outperform other neural networks with different architectures in ECG analysis. However, most previous studies in ECG analysis have overlooked the importance of network scaling optimization, which significantly improves performance. We explored and demonstrated an efficient approach to scale ResNet by examining the effects of crucial parameters, including layer depth, the number of channels, and the convolution kernel size. Through extensive experiments, we found that a shallower network, a larger number of channels, and smaller kernel sizes result in better performance for ECG classifications. The optimal network scale might differ depending on the target task, but our findings provide insight into obtaining more efficient and accurate models with fewer computing resources or less time. In practice, we demonstrate that a narrower search space based on our findings leads to higher performance.