diff --git a/.github/workflows/run_tests_nnunet.yml b/.github/workflows/run_tests_nnunet.yml
index 37511e5c5..7926d9a80 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/run_tests_nnunet.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/run_tests_nnunet.yml
@@ -29,8 +29,6 @@ jobs:
         unzip -o $HOME/github_actions_nnunet/results/tmp_download_file.zip -d $HOME/github_actions_nnunet/results
         rm $HOME/github_actions_nnunet/results/tmp_download_file.zip
 
-        python -c "import urllib.request; urllib.request.urlretrieve('https://github.com/wasserth/TotalSegmentator/raw/refs/tags/v2.4.0/tests/reference_files/example_ct_sm.nii.gz', '$HOME/github_actions_nnunet/example_ct_sm.nii.gz')"
-
     - name: Install dependencies on Ubuntu
       if: runner.os == 'Linux'
       run: |
diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index ee76df517..acceb2804 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -99,7 +99,7 @@ ENV/
 *.txt
 .idea/*
 *.png
-*.nii.gz
+# *.nii.gz  # nifti files needed for example_data for github actions tests
 *.nii
 *.tif
 *.bmp
diff --git a/nnunetv2/tests/example_data/example_ct_sm.nii.gz b/nnunetv2/tests/example_data/example_ct_sm.nii.gz
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..ec5668e1e
Binary files /dev/null and b/nnunetv2/tests/example_data/example_ct_sm.nii.gz differ
diff --git a/nnunetv2/tests/example_data/example_ct_sm_T300_output.nii.gz b/nnunetv2/tests/example_data/example_ct_sm_T300_output.nii.gz
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..22973a2b0
Binary files /dev/null and b/nnunetv2/tests/example_data/example_ct_sm_T300_output.nii.gz differ
diff --git a/nnunetv2/tests/integration_tests/run_nnunet_inference.py b/nnunetv2/tests/integration_tests/run_nnunet_inference.py
index 0a1de0882..116d0490d 100755
--- a/nnunetv2/tests/integration_tests/run_nnunet_inference.py
+++ b/nnunetv2/tests/integration_tests/run_nnunet_inference.py
@@ -3,29 +3,42 @@
 import subprocess
 from pathlib import Path
 
-"""
-To run these tests do
-python tests/tests_nnunet.py
-"""
-def run_tests_and_exit_on_failure():
+import nibabel as nib
+import numpy as np
+
+
+def dice_score(y_true, y_pred):
+    intersect = np.sum(y_true * y_pred)
+    denominator = np.sum(y_true) + np.sum(y_pred)
+    f1 = (2 * intersect) / (denominator + 1e-6)
+    return f1
 
+
+def run_tests_and_exit_on_failure():
+    """
+    Runs inference of a simple nnU-Net for CT body segmentation on a small example CT image 
+    and checks if the output is correct.
+    """
     # Set nnUNet_results env var
     weights_dir = Path.home() / "github_actions_nnunet" / "results"
     os.environ["nnUNet_results"] = str(weights_dir)
-    print(f"Using weights directory: {weights_dir}")
 
     # Copy example file
-    os.makedirs("tests/nnunet_input_files", exist_ok=True)
-    shutil.copy(Path.home() / "github_actions_nnunet" / "example_ct_sm.nii.gz", "tests/nnunet_input_files/example_ct_sm_0000.nii.gz")
+    os.makedirs("nnunetv2/tests/github_actions_output", exist_ok=True)
+    shutil.copy("nnunetv2/tests/example_data/example_ct_sm.nii.gz", "nnunetv2/tests/github_actions_output/example_ct_sm_0000.nii.gz")
 
     # Run nnunet
-    subprocess.call(f"nnUNetv2_predict -i tests/nnunet_input_files -o tests/nnunet_input_files -d 300 -tr nnUNetTrainer -c 3d_fullres -f 0 -device cpu", shell=True)
+    subprocess.call(f"nnUNetv2_predict -i nnunetv2/tests/github_actions_output -o nnunetv2/tests/github_actions_output -d 300 -tr nnUNetTrainer -c 3d_fullres -f 0 -device cpu", shell=True)
 
-    # Check if output file exists
-    assert os.path.exists("tests/nnunet_input_files/example_ct_sm.nii.gz"), "A nnunet output file was not generated."
+    # Check if the nnunet segmentation is correct
+    img_gt = nib.load(f"nnunetv2/tests/example_data/example_ct_sm_T300_output.nii.gz").get_fdata()
+    img_pred = nib.load(f"nnunetv2/tests/github_actions_output/example_ct_sm.nii.gz").get_fdata()
+    dice = dice_score(img_gt, img_pred)
+    images_equal = dice > 0.99
+    assert images_equal, f"The nnunet segmentation is not correct (dice: {dice:.5f})."
 
     # Clean up
-    shutil.rmtree("tests/nnunet_input_files")
+    shutil.rmtree("nnunetv2/tests/github_actions_output")
     shutil.rmtree(Path.home() / "github_actions_nnunet")