ICU-Sepsis: A Benchmark MDP Built from Real Medical Data

Published in Reinforcement Learning Conference, 2024

Environment visualization
Illustration of one episode in the ICU-Sepsis environment.

We present ICU-Sepsis, an environment that can be used in benchmarks for evaluating reinforcement learning (RL) algorithms. Sepsis management is a complex task that has been an important topic in applied RL research in recent years. Therefore, MDPs that model sepsis management can serve as part of a benchmark to evaluate RL algorithms on a challenging real-world problem. However, creating usable MDPs that simulate sepsis care in the ICU remains a challenge due to the complexities involved in acquiring and processing patient data. ICU-Sepsis is a lightweight environment that models personalized care of sepsis patients in the ICU. The environment is a tabular MDP that is widely compatible and is challenging even for state-of-the-art RL algorithms, making it a valuable tool for benchmarking their performance. However, we emphasize that while ICU-Sepsis provides a standardized environment for evaluating RL algorithms, it should not be used to draw conclusions that guide medical practice.

Accepted at the Reinforcement Learning Conference, 2024.

Paper | Code

Cite as:

@article{choudhary2024sepsis,
    title={{ICU-Sepsis}: {A} Benchmark {MDP} Built from Real Medical Data},
    author={Choudhary, Kartik and Gupta, Dhawal and Thomas, Philip S.},
    journal={Reinforcement Learning Journal},
    volume={4},
    pages={1546--1566},
    year={2024}
}