# Benchmarking Federated Learning Frameworks for Medical Imaging Deployment: A Comparative Study of NVIDIA FLARE, Flower, and Owkin Substra

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2511.00037 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2511.00037/

## Key facts

- Cited by 1 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- First posted on arXiv 27 Oct 2025.

## Built on by (most cited first, 1 of 1)

- [Making Cross-Continental Federated Learning Repeatable with FLIP: a Multi-Application Study](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2609.36001/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Federated Learning (FL) has emerged as a transformative paradigm in medical AI, enabling collaborative model training across institutions without direct data sharing. This study benchmarks three prominent FL frameworks NVIDIA FLARE, Flower, and Owkin Substra to evaluate their suitability for medical imaging applications in real-world settings. Using the PathMNIST dataset, we assess model performance, convergence efficiency, communication overhead, scalability, and developer experience. Results indicate that NVIDIA FLARE offers superior production scalability, Flower provides flexibility for prototyping and academic research, and Owkin Substra demonstrates exceptional privacy and compliance features. Each framework exhibits strengths optimized for distinct use cases, emphasizing their relevance to practical deployment in healthcare environments.