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PhD Thesis

[1] Spicher N. Time-frequency analysis of optical and electrical cardiac signals with applications in ultra-high-field MRI [dissertation]. Essen: Duisburg-Essen University; 2020; Available from: (Link)

Journal papers

[16] Steinbrinker TFA, Krefting D, Bartsch RP, Kantelhardt JW, Spicher N. TDSpy: An open-source implementation of time delay stability analysis. SoftwareX. 2024;27:101890. (DOI)

[15] Idrobo-Ávila E, Bognár G, Krefting D, Penzel T, Kovács P, Spicher N. Quantifying the Suitability of Biosignals Acquired During Surgery for Multimodal Analysis. IEEE Open Journal of Engineering in Medicine and Biology. 2024;5:250-260. (DOI)

[14] Schwarze S, Schaadt NS, Sobotta VMG, Spicher N, Skripuletz T, Esmaeilzadeh M, Krauss JK, Hartmann C, Deserno TM, Feuerhake F. Task design for crowdsourced glioma cell annotation in microscopy images. Scientific Reports. 2024;14:1965. (DOI)

[13] Spicher N, Wesemeyer T, Deserno TM. Crowdsourcing Image Segmentation for Deep Learning: Integrated Platform for Citizen Science, Paid Microtask, and Gamification. Biomedical Engineering/Biomedizinische Technik. 2023;9(3):293-305 (DOI)

[12] Dathe H, Krefting D, Spicher N. Completing the Cabrera Circle: Deriving adaptable leads from ECG limb leads by combining constraints with a correction factor. Physiological Measurement. 2023; 105005. (DOI)

[11] Bender N, Beinecke JM, Krefting D, Müller C, Dathe H, Seidler T, Spicher N, Hauschild AC. Analysis of a Deep Learning Model for 12-Lead ECG Classification Reveals Learned Features Similar to Diagnostic Criteria. IEEE Journal of Biomedical and Health Informatics. 2023;28(4):1848-1859. (DOI)

[10] Nolte H, Spicher N, Russel A, Ehlers T, Krey S, Krefting D, Kunkel J. Secure HPC: A workflow providing a secure partition on an HPC system. Future Generation Computer Systems. 2023; 141:677-691. (DOI)

[9] Cornelissen CG, Winter S, Keuchel D, Spicher N, Böckmann B, Stephan C, Saygi T, Windisch W, Vollmer T, Dreher D. Toward a digital decision- and workflow-support system for initiation and control of long-term non-invasive ventilation in stable hypercapnic COPD patients. Therapeutic Advances in Chronic Disease. 2022;13:1-5. (DOI)

[8] Selvaraju V, Spicher N, Wang J, Ganapathy N, Warnecke JM, Leonhardt S, Swaminathan R, Deserno TM. Continuous monitoring of vital signs using cameras: A systematic review. Sensors. 2022;22(11):4097. (DOI)

[7] Haghi M, Barakat R, Spicher N, Heinrich C, Jageniak J, Öktem GS, Krips M, Wang J, Hackel S, Deserno TM. Automatic Information Exchange in the Early Rescue Chain Using the International Standard Accident Number (ISAN). Healthcare. 2021;9(8):996. (DOI)

[6] Warnecke JM, Wang J, Cakir T, Spicher N, Ganapathy N, Deserno TM. Registered report protocol: Developing an artifact index for capacitive electrocardiography signals acquired with an armchair. PLoS ONE. 2021;16(7):e0254780. (DOI)

[5] Spicher N, Barakat R, Wang J, Haghi M, Jagieniak J, Öktem GS, Hackel S, Deserno TM. Proposing an International Standard Accident Number (ISAN) for interconnecting ICT systems of the rescue chain. Methods of Information in Medicine. 2021;60(S 01):e20-e31. (DOI)

[4] Wang J, Spicher N, Warnecke JM, Haghi M, Schwartze J, Deserno TM. Unobtrusive Health Monitoring in Private Spaces: The Smart Home. Sensors. 2021;21(3):864. (DOI)

[3] Spicher N, Kukuk M. Delineation of Electrocardiograms Using Multiscale Parameter Estimation. IEEE Journal of Biomedical and Health Informatics. 2020;24(8):2216-2229. (DOI)

[2] Kukuk M, Spicher N. Parameter estimation based on scale-dependent algebraic expressions and scale-space fitting. IEEE Transactions on Signal Processing. 2019;67(6):1431-1446. (DOI)

[1] Spicher N, Kukuk M, Maderwald S, Ladd ME. Initial evaluation of prospective cardiac triggering using photoplethysmography signals recorded with a video camera compared to pulse oximetry and electrocardiography at 7T MRI. BioMedical Engineering OnLine. 2016;15(1):126. (DOI)

Conference papers

[37] Bender T, Hempel P, Spicher N. Concordance analysis between deep learning model predictions and electrocardiography thresholds from cardiology guidelines. In: Proceedings of the 58th Annual Conference of the German Society for Biomedical Engineering, Stuttgart, Germany; 2024. (accepted)

[36] Steinbrinker TFA, Spicher N. Electrocardiography Denoising via Sparse Dictionary Learning from Small Datasets. In: Proceedings of the 58th Annual Conference of the German Society for Biomedical Engineering, Stuttgart, Germany; 2024. (accepted)

[35] Eguchi K, Barth A, Spicher N. Benchmarking open-source algorithms for QRS Detection and RRI Editing in textile electrocardiography. In: Proceedings of the 46th Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine, Orlando, Florida, USA; 2024. (accepted)

[34] Hempel P, Bender T, Spicher N. Enhancing explainability in ECG analysis through evidence-based AI interpretability. In: Proceedings of the 46th Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine, Orlando, Florida, USA; 2024. (accepted)

[33] MC Maurer, JM Metsch, P Hempel, T Bender, Spicher N, AC Hauschild. Explainable Artificial Intelligence on Biosignals for Clinical Decision Support. In: KDD '24: Proceedings of the 30th ACM SIGKDD Conference on Knowledge Discovery and Data Mining, Barcelona, Spain; 2024. (DOI)

[32] Graf L, Krefting D, Kesztyüs T, Oremek M, Zenker S, Spicher N. Interoperable integration of automatic ECG processing using DICOMweb and the AcuWave Software Suite. In: 34rd Medical Informatics Europe Conference , Athens, Greece; 2024. (DOI)

[31] Haas P, Spicher N, Warnecke JM, Deserno TM. Quality of Electrocardiography Recorded with Consumer Smart Shirts. In: 34rd Medical Informatics Europe Conference, Athens, Greece; 2024. (DOI)

[30] Gomez JT, Spicher N, Haase J. Effective Synergies at Technical Universities to Actively Promote STEM at K-12 Schools. In: Proceedings of the IEEE Global Engineering Education Conference (EDUCON), Kos, Greece; 2024. (DOI)

[29] Hempel P, Bender T, Gandhi K, Spicher N. Towards Explaining Deep Neural Network-Based Heart Age Estimation. In: 2023 IEEE EMBS Special Topic Conference on Data Science and Engineering in Healthcare, Medicine and Biology, Portomaso, Malta; 2023. (DOI)

[28] Bönisch C, Hanß S, Spicher N, Sax U, Krefting D. Reusing Biomedical Data as Agreed - Towards Structured Metadata for Data Use Agreements. In: 68th Annual Conference of the German Association for Medical Informatics, Biometry and Epidemiology (GMDS 2023), Heilbronn, Germany; 2023. (DOI)

[27] Hempel P, Zaschke P, Goldammer M, Spicher N. Fusion of Features with Neural Networks for Prediction of Secondary Neurological Outcome After Cardiac Arrest. In: 50th Computing in Cardiology conference (CINC), Atlanta, USA; 2023. (DOI)

[26] Gemke P, Bender T, Idrobo-Avila E, Dathe H, Krefting D, Kacprowski T, Spicher N. Quantifying Alterations over Time in ST-segment/T-wave Amplitudes During Elective Percutaneous Coronary Intervention. In: 50th Computing in Cardiology conference (CINC), Atlanta, USA; 2023. (DOI)

[25] Gomez JT, Spicher N, Rios J, Dressler F. Fine-tune Circuit Representation of Human Vessels through Reinforcement Learning: A Novel Digital Twin Approach for Hemodynamics. In: 10th ACM International Conference on Nanoscale Computing and Communication (Nanocom 2023), Coventry, UK; 2023. (DOI)

[24] Bender T, Jensen C, Krefting D, Spicher N. Introducing Social Gamification to a Biomedical Signal Processing Course: A Case Study. In: Proceedings of the IEEE German Education Conference 2023 (GECon), Berlin, Germany; 2023. (DOI)

[23] Roha VS, Ganapathy N, Spicher N, Saha S, Deserno TM. Assessment of Driver’s Stress using Multimodal Biosignals and Regularized Deep Kernel Learning. In: Proceedings of the 45th Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine, Sydney, Australia; 2023. (DOI)

[22] Gomez JT, Spicher N, Haase J. Quo Vadis? - Comprehensive Viewpoint on German Educational Research. In: Proceedings of the IEEE Global Engineering Education Conference (EDUCON), Salmaiya, Kuwait; 2023. (DOI)

[21] Bender T, Gemke P, Idrobo-Avila E, Dathe H, Krefting D, Spicher N. Benchmarking the Impact of Noise on Deep Learning-based Classification of Atrial Fibrillation in 12-Lead ECG. In: 33rd Medical Informatics Europe Conference , Gothenburg, Sweden; 2023. (DOI)

[20] Gemke P, Spicher N, Kacprowski T. An LSTM-based Listener for Early Detection of Heart Disease. In: Proceedings of the 49th Computing in Cardiology conference, Tampere, Finland; 2022. (DOI)

[19] Klingenberg A, Purrucker V, Schüler W, Ganapathy N, Spicher N, Deserno TM. Human activity recognition from textile electrocardiograms. In: Proceedings of the 44th Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine & Biology Society, Glasgow, Scotland, 2022; p. 3434-3437. (DOI)

[18] Selvaraju V, Spicher N, Ramakrishnan S, Deserno TM. Unobtrusive Heart Rate Monitoring Using Near-Infrared Imaging During Driving. In: Proceedings of the 44th Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine & Biology Society, Glasgow, Scotland, 2022; p. 2967-2971. (DOI)

[17] Meratwal M, Spicher N, Deserno TM. Multi-camera and multi-person indoor activity recognition for continuous health monitoring using long short term memory. In: Proceedings SPIE 12037, Medical Imaging 2022: Imaging Informatics for Healthcare, Research, and Applications, San Diego, Californa, 2022; p. 64-71. (DOI)

[16] Selvaraju V, Spicher N, Swaminathan R, Deserno TM. Face detection from in-car video for continuous health monitoring. In: Proceedings SPIE 12037, Medical Imaging 2022: Imaging Informatics for Healthcare, Research, and Applications, San Diego, Californa, 2022; p. 49-56. (DOI)

[15] Schüler W, Spicher N, Deserno TM. Cardiopulmonary coupling analysis using smart wearables and mobile computing. In: Proceedings of the 55th Annual Conference of the German Society for Biomedical Engineering, Hannover, Germany; 2021; p. 291-294. (DOI)

[14] Keuchel D, Spicher N, Wang J, Völcker M, Gong Y, Deserno TM. SHACL-based Report Quality Evaluation for Health IT-induced Medication Errors. In: Proceedings of the 18th World Congress of Medical and Health Informatics, Virtual Event; 2021. (DOI) 3rd place best paper award

[13] Spicher N, Klingenberg A, Purrucker V, Deserno TM. Edge computing in 5G cellular networks for real-time analysis of electrocardiography recorded with wearable textile sensors. In: Proceedings of the 43rd Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society, Virtual Event; 2021; p. 1735-1739. (DOI) (Arxiv)

[12] Spicher N, Schweins M, Thielecke L, Kürner T, Deserno TM. Feasibility Analysis of Fifth-generation (5G) Mobile Networks for Transmission of Medical Imaging Data. In: Proceedings of the 43rd Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society, Virtual Event; 2021; p. 1791-1795. (DOI) (Arxiv)

[11] Warnecke JM, Boeker N, Spicher N, Wang J, Flormann M, Deserno TM. Sensor Fusion for Robust Heartbeat Detection during Driving. In: Proceedings of the 43rd Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society, Virtual Event; 2021. p. 447-450. (DOI)

[10] Spicher N, Kukuk M. Zuckerwatte (zcwt): An open-source C++ library for standardizing computation and post-processing of the continuous wavelet transform. In: Proceedings of the 12th International Symposium on Image and Signal Processing and Analysis (ISPA), Virtual Event; 2021. p. 41-46. (DOI)

[9] Leeker R, Spicher N, Kukuk M. An Accurate and Efficient Zero-Crossing Line Classifier for Multiscale Parameter Estimation of Gaussian Signals Subject to Noise. In: Proceedings of the 12th International Symposium on Image and Signal Processing and Analysis (ISPA), Virtual Event; 2021. p. 36-40. (DOI)

[8] Keuchel D, Spicher N. Automatic detection of metadata errors in a registry of clinical studies using Shapes Constraint Language (SHACL) graphs. In: Proceedings of the 31st Medical Informatics Europe Conference; 2021; p. 372-376. (DOI)

[7] Jauer ML, Spicher N, Deserno TM. Gamification concept for acquisition of medical image segmentation via crowdsourcing. In: Proceedings SPIE 11601, Medical Imaging 2021: Imaging Informatics for Healthcare, Research, and Applications; 2021;116010D. (DOI)

[6] Taufeeque M, Koita M, Spicher N, Deserno TM. Multi-camera, multi-person, and real-time fall detection using long short term memory. In: Proceedings SPIE 11601, Medical Imaging 2021: Imaging Informatics for Healthcare, Research, and Applications; 2021;1160109. (DOI)

[5] Spicher N, Kukuk M. ECG delineation using a piecewise Gaussian derivative model with parameters estimated from scale-dependent algebraic expressions. In: Proceedings of the 41st Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society, Berlin, Germany; 2019. p. 5633-5637. (DOI)

[4] Spicher N, Kukuk M, Maderwald S, Ladd ME. Multiscale parameter estimation (msPE) of QRS complexes distorted by magnetohydrodynamic effects at 7 Tesla. In: Proceedings of the 53rd Annual Conference of the German Society for Biomedical Engineering, Frankfurt, Germany; 2019. p. 365-368. (DOI)

[3] Spicher N, Lovelace T, Kukuk M. Feasibility of photoplethysmography imaging of the sole of the foot. In: Proceedings of the 13th IEEE International Symposium on Medical Measurements & Applications, Rome, Italy; 2018. p. 1-6. (DOI)

[2] Spicher N. Cardiac activity measurement from video signals of the human skin in ultra-high-field magnetic resonance imaging. In: Proceedings of the 46th Annual Meeting of the German Informatics Society, Klagenfurt, Austria; 2016. p. 1999-2004. (DL GI)

[1] Spicher N, Maderwald S, Ladd ME, Kukuk M. Heart rate monitoring in ultra-high-field MRI using frequency information obtained from video signals of the human skin compared to electrocardiography and pulse oximetry. In: Proceedings of the 49th Annual Conference of the German Society for Biomedical Engineering, Lübeck, Germany; 2015. p. 69-72. (DOI)

Conference abstracts

[23] Graf L, Krefting D, Spicher N. Storing ECG data FAIR: Initial results of a scoping review. In: Proceedings of the 69th Annual Conference of the German Association for Medical Informatics, Biometry and Epidemiology, Dresden, Germany; 2024. p. 161. (DOI)

[22] Steinbrinker TFA, Sievers S, Machreich T, Schulmeister S, Hempel P, Krefting D, von Haehling S, Spicher N. Adherence to Apple Watch usage among hospitalized heart failure patients. In: Proceedings of the 69th Annual Conference of the German Association for Medical Informatics, Biometry and Epidemiology, Dresden, Germany; 2024. p. 224. (DOI)

[21] Bender T, Krefting D, Spicher N. Introducing Gamification to a Biosignal Processing Course on Bachelor Level. In: Proceedings of the 57th Annual Conference of the German Society of Biomedical Engineering, Duisburg, Germany; 2023. (DOI)

[20] Gemke P, Krefting D, Spicher N. Change of ST-level during and after physical activity in young men. In: Proceedings of the 57th Annual Conference of the German Society of Biomedical Engineering, Duisburg, Germany; 2023. (DOI)

[19] Dathe H, Krefting D, Spicher N. An interactive tool for analysis of electrical heart axes using 2D vector loops of 6-lead ECGs. In: Proceedings of the 57th Annual Conference of the German Society of Biomedical Engineering, Duisburg, Germany; 2023. (DOI)

[18] Idrobo-Ávila E, Bognár G, Krefting D, Gemke P, Bender T, Kovács P, Spicher N. Quantifying Baseline Noise in 12-Lead ECG. In: Proceedings of the 68th Annual Conference of the German Association for Medical Informatics, Biometry and Epidemiology, Heilbronn, Germany; 2023. p. 308. (DOI)

[17] Idrobo-Ávila E, Bognár G, Krefting D, Gemke P, Bender T, Kovács P, Spicher N. Quality assessment for multimodal biosignals acquired intraoperatively. In: Proceedings of the 68th Annual Conference of the German Association for Medical Informatics, Biometry and Epidemiology, Heilbronn, Germany; 2023. p. 193. (DOI)

[16] Bowden JP, Nolte H, Spicher N. Ushering in a New Era for Data Processing in XNAT Using HPC. In: Proceedings of the 2023 NHR Conference , Berlin, Germany; 2023. p. 233. (Link)

[15] Bender T, Beinecke J, Hauschild AC, Krefting D, Spicher N. Towards Explaining Decisions of a Deep Learning Model for AF Detection in 12-lead ECGs. In: Proceedings of the 2022 Joint Annual Conference of the Austrian (ÖGBMT), German (VDE DGBMT) and Swiss (SSBE) Societies for Biomedical Engineering, Innsbruck, Austria; 2022. p. 233. (DOI)

[14] Bender T, Beinecke J, Hauschild AC, Krefting D, Spicher N. Analyzing a Deep Learning Model for 12-Lead ECG Classification with Explainable AI. In: Proceedings of the 67th Annual Conference of the German Association for Medical Informatics, Biometry and Epidemiology, Kiel, Germany; 2022. p. 129. (DOI)

[13] Spicher N, Pitzke C, Deserno TM. Continuous And Real-Time Classification Of Multiple ECGs On An Edge Device Using Deep Convolutional Neural Networks. In: Proceedings of the 55th Annual Conference of the German Society of Biomedical Engineering, Hannover, Germany; 2021. p. 219. (DOI)

[12] Spicher N. Analysis of ECG time-frequency representations as input for deep neural networks. In: Proceedings of 55th Asilomar Conference On Signals, Systems And Computers, online; 2021. p. F-1.4. (URL)

[11] Spicher N, Barakat R, Deserno TM. MRI data transmission via fifth-generation (5G) cellular networks. In: Proceedings of 2021 ISMRM & SMRT Annual Meeting & Exhibition, online; 2021. p. 4273. (URL)

[10] Cornelissen CG, Spicher N, Vollmer T, Winter S, Stephan C, Saygi T, et al. DIGIVENT - Digitalisiertes, individualisiertes Therapie- unterstützungssystem zur nicht-stationären Indikationsstellung, Einleitung und Kontrolle einer außerklinischen Beatmung für COPD Patienten. In: Proceedings of the 61st Annual Conference of the German Respiratory Society, Leipzig, Germany; 2020. (DOI)

[9] Keuchel D, Böckmann B, Spicher N. Semantic verification during BPMN modeling of healthcare processes by integrating Shapes Constraint Language (SHACL) graphs. In: Proceedings of the 64th Annual Conference of the German Association for Medical Informatics, Biometry and Epidemiology, Dortmund, Germany; 2019. p. 227. (DOI)

[8] Spicher N, Orzada S, Maderwald S, Ladd ME, Kukuk M. A novel method for video-based cardiac gating in 7T MR angiography using a video of the foot. In: Proceedings of the 26th Annual Meeting of the International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine, Paris, France; 2018. p. 2697.

[7] Spicher N, Tanriverdi F, Thiem J, Kukuk M. PPG imaging: Investigating skin inhomogeneity using hyperspectral imaging and principal component analysis. In: Proceedings of the 51st Annual Conference of the German Society of Biomedical Engineering, Dresden, Germany; 2017. p. S367. (DOI)

[6] Spicher N, Orzada S, Maderwald S, Kukuk M, Ladd ME. An open-source hardware and software system for video-gated MRI. In: Proceedings of the 25th Annual Meeting of the International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine, Honolulu, USA; 2017. p. 141.

[5] Spicher N, Orzada S, Maderwald S, Kukuk M, Ladd ME. On the importance of skin color phase variations for video measurement of cardiac activity in MRI. In: Proceedings of the 25th Annual Meeting of the International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine, Honolulu, USA; 2017. p. 1300.

[4] Kruder A, Rempel T, Spicher N, Lang S, Schlüter A, Kukuk M. Facial nerve paresis: a real-time digital biofeedback mirror as therapeutic exercise tool using phase based video motion processing. In: Proceedings of the Conference of the Swiss, Austrian and German Societies of Biomedical Engineering, Basel, Swiss; 2016. p. S66. (DOI)

[3] Spicher N, Maderwald S, Ladd ME, Kukuk M. High-speed, contact-free measurement of the photoplethysmography waveform for MRI triggering. In: Proceedings of the 24th Annual Meeting of the International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine, Singapore; 2016. p. 1861.

[2] Spicher N, Kukuk M, Ladd ME, Maderwald S. In vivo 7T MR imaging triggered by phase information obtained from video signals of the human skin. In: Proceedings of the 23rd Annual Meeting of the International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine, Toronto, Canada; 2015. p. 2548.

[1] Spicher N, Brumann C, Kukuk M, Ladd ME, Maderwald S. Eulerian video magnification for heart pulse measurement in MRI Scanners. In: Proceedings of the 22nd Annual Meeting of the International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine, Milan, Italy; 2014. p. 4824.

Weakly Reviewed Publications

[4] Haghi M, Spicher N, Wang J, and Deserno TM. Integrated Sensing Devices for Disease Prevention and Health Alerts in Smart Homes. In: Accident and Emergency Informatics; 2022. p. 39-61. IOS Press Series: Studies in Health Technology and Informatics. (DOI)

[3] Warnecke JM, Spicher N, Deserno TM, Flormann M, Henze R. 5G-enabled In-vehicle Health Monitoring. In: ACIMobility Summit 2021, Braunschweig, Germany; 2021.

[2] Barakat R, Spicher N, Deserno TM. Challenges encountered in the development process of the International Standard Accident Number (ISAN). In: Workshop on Implementation of Digital Health Solutions 2020, Dresden, Germany; 2020.

[1] Kruder A, Rempel T, Spicher N, Kukuk M. Facial nerve paresis: a real-time digital biofeedback mirror as therapeutic exercise tool using phase based video motion processing. In: Volume 3 of Schriftenreihe des Fachbereichs Informatik der Fachhochschule Dortmund; 2017. p. 77-87. tredition GmbH.