A unique digital electrocardiographic repository for the development of quantitative electrocardiography and cardiac safety: the Telemetric and Holter ECG Warehouse (THEW).

The sharing of scientific data reinforces open scientific inquiry; it encourages diversity of analysis and opinion while promoting new research and facilitating the education of next generations of scientists. In this article, we present an initiative for the development of a repository containing continuous electrocardiographic information and their associated clinical information. This information is shared with the worldwide scientific community to improve quantitative electrocardiology and cardiac safety. First, we present the objectives of the initiative and its mission. Then, we describe the resources available in this initiative following 3 components: data, expertise, and tools. The data available in the Telemetric and Holter ECG Warehouse (THEW) includes continuous electrocardiogram signals and associated clinical information. The initiative attracted various academic and private partners whom expertise covers a large list of research arenas related to quantitative electrocardiography; their contribution to the THEW promotes cross-fertilization of scientific knowledge, resources, and ideas that will advance the field of quantitative electrocardiography. Finally, the tools of the THEW include software and servers to access and review the data available in the repository. To conclude, the THEW is an initiative developed to benefit the scientific community and to advance the field of quantitative electrocardiography and cardiac safety. It is a new repository designed to complement the existing ones such as Physionet, the American Heart Association - Beth Israel Hospital (AHA-BIH) arrhythmia database, and the Common Standard for Electrocardiography (CSE) database. The THEW hosts unique datasets from clinical trials and drug safety studies that, so far, were not available.