A Simulated Federated Analysis of MS-Induced Brain Lesions
For researchers in federated learning and MS research, this work provides a realistic simulation environment to evaluate federated methods, but it is incremental as it applies existing techniques to a new domain.
This study introduces a simulation framework for federated analysis of multiple sclerosis (MS) patient data, combining image segmentation and clinical data analysis tasks. The framework uses high-fidelity synthetic cohorts and real-world imaging datasets to emulate real federated workflows, providing a testbed for developing and benchmarking federated methods.
Federated techniques such as federated learning and federated analysis have emerged as a powerful paradigm for enabling multi-center research on sensitive clinical data while preserving patient privacy. In this study, we introduce a simulation framework that emulates a real-world federated research project focused on the analysis of multiple sclerosis (MS) patient data. The project comprises two components: an image segmentation task and a clinical data analysis task, where federated variants of survival analysis and Principal Component Analysis (PCA) are employed. To capture the complexity and heterogeneity of real clinical datasets, we construct a federation of high-fidelity synthetic cohorts designed to mirror MS-related clinical and demographic characteristics, while the imaging component leverages publicly available real-world datasets. Our simulation replicates key elements of authentic federated workflows, including distributed data governance, site-specific preprocessing, model training across isolated nodes, and the secure aggregation of analytical outputs. This framework provides a realistic testbed for developing, evaluating, and benchmarking federated learning methods in the context of MS research.