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Winners Announced for the 2024 AMR Surveillance Data Challenge, funded by GARDP, Paratek, Pfizer and Vivli

Vivli is pleased to announce the awardees of the 2024 AMR (Antimicrobial Resistance) Surveillance Data Challenge. The Data Challenge aims to stimulate and support the innovative re-use of surveillance data available in the AMR Register.

The AMR Data Challenge, funded by GARDP, Paratek, Pfizer and Vivli, was launched in June 2024, as a catalyst for innovation and support for the inventive reutilization of the wealth of surveillance data available within the AMR Register.

Data challenge judge Seamus O’Brien, Director of Research & Development at Global Antibiotic Research & Development Partnership (GARDP) which helped to fund the challenge, said, “The Data Challenge demonstrates the value of open access to AMR surveillance data through the creativity of the applicants in applying this data to innovative AMR solutions.”

A total of 56 teams with members from 27 different countries participated in the AMR Data Challenge. This event served as a unique platform for multidisciplinary teams to leverage high-quality industry AMR surveillance data, proposing groundbreaking advancements and tools for use in AMR surveillance. The Challenge culminated in the recognition of six outstanding winners, selected by a distinguished judging panel.

The Grand Prize was awarded to a team from University of Oxford, UK, – Kasim Allel, David Smith, Koen Pouwels, Nam Nguyen, and Sam Lipworth. The team used the Pfizer ATLAS dataset to develop a flexible spatiotemporal modelling framework to predict AMR dynamics from routine surveillance data, and to identify key change points in epidemiological trends.

Dr Kasim Allel, researcher at the University of Oxford’s Health Economics Research Centre, said, “Participating in this prestigious data challenge has been a profoundly rewarding experience for our team, and winning it has further strengthened our commitment to using data to drive impactful health solutions. We are particularly grateful to Vivli for creating such an accessible and supportive platform. This experience underscores the critical importance of early detection of changes in antimicrobial resistance (AMR) trends and the development of early warning systems that empower communities, including those with limited resources, to address AMR challenges more proactively.”

The Student Innovation award winners were a team from Northeastern University, USA – Harry Akligoh, Charlie Huh and Thomas Lim with Alexander Kwakye from Stony Brook University, USA. The team used the Pfizer ATLAS dataset to develop microBIS, a laboratory assistant in the form of an interactive web app for bacterial identification, AMR prediction and data management. Without the need for expensive equipment, the platform empowers healthcare providers to deliver high-quality care regardless of their resource constraints.

“The Vivli AMR Surveillance Data Challenge has been an exciting opportunity and a crucial milestone in our innovation journey,” said Akligoh. “With our diverse backgrounds in medical laboratory science, bioengineering, population genetics, and data science, through hard work and perseverance, we managed to create a novel web-based laboratory assistant with immense potential to drive meaningful progress in AMR diagnosis, research and development, of which we are immensely proud!”

Other notable awardees and their project titles include:

  • Impact Award Winner: team from Chuka County Referral Hospital and Narok County Government, Kenya, led by Rachael Kanguha

Project title: “Using AI to Incorporate Dynamic Antibiograms and Research into Electronic Medical Records for antibiotic decision support”

  • Impact Award Winner: team from Institut Pasteur, France, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, and City St. George’s University of London, UK, led by Quentin Leclerc 

Project title: “Rethinking AMR sampling: can non-sterile samples predict resistance in blood/sterile samples at a country level?”

  • Innovation Award: team from Indraprastha Institute of Information Technology Delhi (IIIT-Delhi), India, led by Tavpritesh Sethi

Project title: “AMROrbit Scorecard: A Dynamic Phase Space Model for Strategic Monitoring and Actionable Insights on Global AMR Trajectories”

  • Innovation Award Winner: team from London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, UK, led by Naomi Waterlow

Project title: “Unveiling the Sex-Specific Impact on Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR): A Bayesian Hierarchical Model Approach Using Vivli Data”

  • An Honorable Mention for Impact goes to the team from University of Ibadan, Nigeria, led by Christian Tochukwu Agboeze

Project title: “Predictive Analytics and Genotypic Evaluation for AMR in Africa (PANGEA)”

Data contributed by GSK, Johnson & Johnson, Paratek, Pfizer, Shionogi, and Venatorx was made accessible through the AMR Register, significantly enhancing the impact of the Challenge.

“The Vivli AMR surveillance Open Re-use Challenge has gone from strength to strength in its second iteration,” said Prof. Marc Mendelson, Chair of the Vivli AMR Scientific Advisory Board, Professor of Infectious Diseases and Head of the Division of Infectious Diseases & HIV Medicine, Groote Schuur Hospital, University of Cape Town. “Solutions were largely driven by innovation in the use of AI, machine learning, prediction models and innovative modelling methodology to bring impactful change to the way we use surveillance data. Congratulations to all the teams who entered. The standard was extremely high across the board and we all look forward to following the winners’ progress.”

For more details and to view the winning teams’ solutions, please visit https://amr.vivli.org/data-challenge/finalist-and-award-winning-solutions.

Contact: Catherine D’Arcy, Rebecca Li

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About Vivli

Vivli is a non-profit organization working to advance human health through the insights and discoveries gained by sharing and analyzing data. Data sharing initiatives include the AMR Register for AMR surveillance data and the Vivli Platform for clinical trial data. Vivli acts as a neutral broker between data contributor and data user and the wider data sharing community. For more information, visit www.vivli.org and follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter @VivliCenter.



Venus Remedies joins Vivli’s AMR Register as a Member to Share its Data

“We are delighted to have Venus Remedies join as a member of the AMR register,” said Rebecca Li, Vivli CEO. “We look forward to working with the team at Venus Remedies to share their AMR surveillance data to further help in the fight against AMR.”

“At Venus Remedies, we are firm believers in the power of open data and collaboration to tackle global challenges like antimicrobial resistance. By joining Vivli’s AMR Register, we are committed to sharing our surveillance data openly with the global research community, helping to drive collective action and accelerate solutions to this pressing health threat,” said Saransh Chaudhary, CEO – Venus Medicine Research Centre.

For more information about the studies Venus Remedies are sharing on the AMR Register, please visit the surveillance programs pages and their member page. For additional information about Membership in Vivli’s AMR Register, learn more here.

2023 Data Challenge winning solutions published in Wellcome Open Research collection

Vivli is delighted to announce the publication of a new collection in Wellcome Open Research showcasing the finalists and winners of the 2023 Vivli AMR Surveillance Open Data Re-Use Data Challenge, funded by Wellcome. This growing collection includes nine articles from participating research teams, as well as an editorial co-authored by members of the judges’ panel and Vivli team. 

This collection is envisioned as a living resource, and finalists and winners from the 2024 Vivli AMR Surveillance Data Challenge, funded by GARDP, Paratek, Pfizer, and Vivli, that is currently underway, will also be invited to submit an article. The included articles highlight the range of diverse, impactful, and innovative solutions developed by the teams participating in the Data Challenge, leveraging data from the Vivli Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) Register to contribute to resolving the AMR crisis. The first two articles to complete peer review approval are now available on the Wellcome Open Research website: 

From our Grand Prize winning team –

“Investigating the feasibility and potential of combining industry AMR monitoring systems: a comparison with WHO GLASS” by Fredrick Mutisya and Rachael Kanguha

From an Impact Award winning team –

“MIC distribution analysis identifies differences in AMR between population sub-groups” by Eve Rahbé, Aleksandra Kovacevic, Lulla Opatowski, and Quentin J. Leclerc

The escalation of infections caused by drug-resistant bacteria worldwide poses a formidable challenge to global health, necessitating innovative approaches to combat this issue. The Vivli AMR Register consolidates antimicrobial susceptibility data from pharmaceutical industry surveillance programs, advancing the fight against antimicrobial resistance through the power of open data and collaboration.

Learn more about the Vivli AMR Register and how you can get involved in the 2024 Data Challenge

Vivli team to speak at GARDP REVIVE webinar on July 23rd

Vivli CEO, Rebecca Li and Antimicrobial Development Consultant Patricia Bradford, will speak at the GARDP REVIVE webinar entitled “The value of surveillance data in defining the medical need for new antimicrobials” on July 23rd. Rebecca will speak on the Vivli AMR Register as a mechanism for sharing and re-use for industry surveillance data, and Patricia will describe the latest 2024 Vivli AMR Surveillance Data Challenge and review the 2023 Data Challenge. Sign up now!

Interactive Q & A will be available to enable audience participation.

Breaking News – Vivli announces the 2024 AMR Surveillance Data Challenge, funded by GARDP, Paratek, Pfizer and Vivli, to Initiate June 17th

Vivli is launching the 2024 Vivli AMR Surveillance Data Challenge, funded by GARDP, Paratek, Pfizer and Vivli, on 17th June. The data challenge aims to stimulate and support the innovative re-use of surveillance data available in the AMR Register.

This Challenge provides an opportunity for multidisciplinary teams to win prizes by using high-quality industry AMR surveillance data to answer pressing research questions.  The data will be shared through the AMR Register.

A series of prizes can be won by research teams from any discipline who find new insights in the data and contribute to the fight against antimicrobial resistance.

What prizes can be won?

A total of 6 awards will be provided that are associated with monetary awards and/or travel

  • Grand Prize Award – $10,000 and a travel grant of $5,000 to travel to ESCMID Global or ASM Microbe in 2025, if their abstract is accepted
  • 4 awards – Each receiving $5,000 and a travel grant of $2,500 to travel to ESCMID Global or ASM Microbe in 2025, if their abstract is accepted – 2 in Innovation and 2 in Impact
  • 1 AMR Student Innovation Award – a travel grant of $5,000 to travel to ESCMID Global or ASM Microbe in 2025, if their abstract is accepted

Sign up to the data challenge Slack Channel to be notified when the challenge is open and to keep updated about the latest information and details about this data challenge.

What’s involved?

On June 17, 2024, teams will be invited to register and submit a short summary of the research they intend to undertake with the data (an Expression of Interest or EOI). The EOIs will be reviewed, and teams will be given access to the data for a 30-day window, during which solutions must be submitted.

These submissions will be reviewed by a panel of judges and finalists selected. Finalists will have the opportunity to pitch their idea to a panel of judges via Zoom and the prize winners will be chosen.

Announcement: New Wellcome Open Research Article on the Vivli AMR Register

We are pleased to announce the publication of a new article in Wellcome Open Research detailing the impactful use of data from the Vivli AMR Register. This article highlights how the register has served as a unique platform for 56 teams to leverage high-quality industry surveillance data.

The escalation of infections caused by drug-resistant bacteria worldwide poses a formidable challenge to global health, necessitating innovative approaches to combat this issue. In 2022, Vivli launched the Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) Register, a platform that consolidates antimicrobial susceptibility data from pharmaceutical industry surveillance programs. This register provides a freely available and fully searchable user-friendly repository to facilitate scientific understanding of resistance patterns and support the development of innovative strategies to address AMR globally.

To promote the register’s utility, raise AMR awareness, and encourage further re-use of the available data, Wellcome funded the Vivli AMR Surveillance Open Data Re-Use Data Challenge in 2023. This 2023 data challenge successfully fostered diverse, impactful, and innovative solutions that leveraged the AMR Register data to contribute to resolving the AMR crisis. The outcomes of the initiative underscored the importance of access to open data in stimulating collaboration and innovation in the public health domain, particularly in combating the growing threat of drug-resistant infections.

We invite you to read the full editorial to learn more about how the Vivli AMR Register is advancing the fight against antimicrobial resistance through the power of open data and collaboration.

AMR Data Challenge Winners Awarded Prizes at ECCMID

Rebecca Li congratulates Grand Prize winner Dr. Fredrick Mutisya

We’re thrilled to honor the recipients of the 2023 Vivli Antimicrobial Resistance Surveillance Open Data Re-Use Data Challenge, generously sponsored by Wellcome. At a special gathering during ESCMID 2024 in Barcelona, teams presented their solutions, showcasing the transformative potential of data re-use in addressing global health challenges like antimicrobial resistance.

“At Vivli, our dedication to healthcare innovation is unwavering,” said Rebecca Li, Vivli CEO. “The innovations unveiled at the 2023 Vivli AMR Surveillance Data Challenge underscore the vital role of collaboration and data-driven strategies in the fight against antimicrobial resistance. Together, we’re shaping the future of global health.

As a scientist, it was gratifying to meet with the winners of the challenge and hear more about their innovative solutions and findings from their analysis of the pharmaceutical surveillance data. Our heartfelt gratitude goes to Wellcome for their invaluable support, and to our data contributors and all participants who played a pivotal role in this challenge.”

The Vivli AMR Surveillance Open Data Re-Use Data Challenge, funded by Wellcome was designed to foster awareness and incentivize the repurposing of surveillance data available in the AMR Register. Attracting 56 teams from 28 nations, this event served as a catalyst for cross-disciplinary collaboration and empowered participants to leverage the wealth of high-quality AMR surveillance data generously contributed by GSK, Johnson & Johnson, Paratek, Pfizer, Shionogi, and Venatorx.

All Vivli AMR Surveillance Open Data Re-Use Data Challenge awardees, company representatives and Wellcome
Fredrick Mutisya receiving the Grand Prize award from Janet Midega, Wellcome
Shraddha Karve receiving the Innovation award from Janet Midega, Wellcome
Aleksandra Kovacevic receiving the Impact award from Janet Midega, Wellcome
Jessika Hu receiving the Impact award from Janet Midega, Wellcome
Joseph Harwell receiving the Impact award from Janet Midega, Wellcome
Quentin Leclerc receiving the Impact award from Janet Midega, Wellcome
Lulla Opatowski receiving the Impact award from Janet Midega, Wellcome
Robert Beardmore & Pablo Catalan receiving the Innovation award from Janet Midega, Wellcome
Jacob Wildfire receiving the Runner-Up Innovation award from Janet Midega, Wellcome
Gwen Knight receiving the Runner-Up Innovation award from Janet Midega, Wellcome
Alastair Clements receiving the Runner-Up Innovation award from Janet Midega, Wellcome
Data Challenge Awardees networking at Awardee Gathering

AMR Data Challenge Winners Set to Present Innovations at ECCMID 2024

Vivli proudly announces recipients of the 2023 Vivli Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) Surveillance Open Data Re-Use Data Challenge, sponsored by Wellcome, will be presenting at the ECCMID 2024 conference in Barcelona from April 27th to 30th. We hope that these innovations using pharmaceutical surveillance data will impact patient outcomes as well as inform antimicrobial resistance policies at local and national levels.

On April 27th Dr. Fredrick Mutisya, co-leader of the team from Narok County, Kenya awarded the Grand Prize will give a one-hour oral session on their team solution entitled “Using machine learning to predict antibacterial and antifungal resistance.” Dr. Mutisya will describe his team’s pioneering use of the Pfizer ATLAS datasets to train machine learning models, unveiling a novel artificial intelligence web application capable of predicting antibacterial/antifungal susceptibility.

On April 28th, Quentin Leclerc from the Institut Pasteur will present his team’s poster exploring the potential of synergizing AMR industry datasets with WHO GLASS data representing their project titled “Stronger together? Potential of combining AMR industry datasets and comparison with WHO GLASS.” This endeavor, leveraging insights from all six AMR Register data contributors alongside WHO resources, received an AMR Data Challenge Impact Award.

Also, on April 28th, Yanhong Jessika Hu of the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute will represent her team at the poster session and describe their team’s project on “Global geographical patterns and trends in WHO priority pathogens and AWaRe (Access, Watch, Reserve) antibiotic resistance across age groups: a global surveillance study.” Hu’s meticulous analysis, employing Pfizer’s ATLAS dataset, also garnered an Impact Award in the AMR Data Challenge.

Concluding the series of presentations, on April 29th, Dr. Jacob Wildfire, representing the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, will represent his team’s exploration of “Minimum inhibitory concentration distributions of worldwide clinical bacterial isolates vary by patient age and other key variables.” This project, recognized with a Runner-Up Innovation Award, harnessed data from all six contributing industry partners.

The AMR Data Challenge, funded by Wellcome and hosted by Vivli was designed to foster awareness and incentivize the repurposing surveillance data available in the AMR Register. Attracting 56 teams from 28 nations, this event served as a catalyst for cross-disciplinary collaboration and empowered participants to leverage the wealth of high-quality AMR surveillance data generously contributed by GSK, Johnson & Johnson, Paratek, Pfizer, Shionogi, and Venatorx.

Spotlight on the Vivli AMR Surveillance Open Data Re-Use Data Challenge, funded by Wellcome

Catch up on an exciting new video now available here showcasing the Challenge winners, several of whom will be presenting their solutions in person at ECCMID 27-30 April 2024.

The Vivli AMR Surveillance Open Data Re-Use Data Challenge, funded by Wellcome, was launched in April 2023, as a catalyst for innovation and support for the inventive reutilization of the wealth of surveillance data available within the AMR Register.

A total of 56 teams from 28 different countries participated in the AMR Data Challenge. This event served as a unique platform for multidisciplinary teams to leverage high-quality industry AMR surveillance data, provided by GSK, Johnson & Johnson, Paratek, Pfizer, Shionogi and Venatorx, proposing groundbreaking advancements and tools for use in AMR surveillance. The Challenge culminated in the recognition of six outstanding winners for the AMR Surveillance Open Data Re-Use Data Challenge.