---
language:
- en
license: other
pipeline_tag: text-generation
tags:
- clinical-nlp
- medical-coding
- icd10
- icd-10-cm
- reasoning
- reinforcement-learning
- grpo
- healthcare
base_model:
- Qwen/Qwen2.5-32B-Instruct
---

# DeepICD-R1-zero-32B

## Model Summary

**DeepICD-R1-zero-32B** is a clinical reasoning model designed for **ICD-10-CM diagnosis outcome prediction from admission notes**.  
It follows the **DeepICD-R1 framework**, which treats diagnosis prediction as a reasoning task optimized with reinforcement learning and structured reward signals.

This checkpoint corresponds to a **“R1-Zero” style model**, meaning it was trained primarily through **reinforcement learning without a supervised fine-tuning (SFT) initialization**, allowing reasoning behaviors to emerge directly from reward optimization.

The approach is inspired by reasoning-focused training pipelines where reinforcement learning alone can induce structured reasoning behaviors and self-verification in large language models.

---

# Model Details

- **Model name:** DeepICD-R1-zero-32B  
- **Organization:** DATEXIS  
- **Model size:** ~32B parameters  
- **Task:** Single ICD-10-CM diagnosis prediction from clinical text  
- **Training paradigm:** Reinforcement learning (GRPO-style)  
- **Framework:** VERL reinforcement learning trainer  
- **Domain:** Clinical NLP / medical reasoning  

### Related Research

This model follows the **DeepICD-R1** framework introduced in:

> *DeepICD-R1: Medical Reasoning through Hierarchical Rewards and Unsupervised Distillation*

The paper proposes a system for diagnosis prediction that combines:

- structured reasoning traces  
- hierarchical reward signals aligned with ICD code structure  
- reinforcement learning for reasoning optimization  

---

# Intended Use

This model is intended for **research purposes**, including:

- clinical reasoning experiments  
- ICD-10-CM code prediction research  
- reinforcement learning for language models  
- reasoning trace generation  
- structured prediction from clinical notes  

### Out-of-Scope Use

This model **must not** be used for:

- medical diagnosis  
- clinical decision making  
- patient triage  
- automated medical coding without expert supervision  
- billing or compliance workflows  

---

# Training Methodology

## R1-Zero Training Paradigm

The model follows a **Zero-stage reasoning training approach**, where reinforcement learning is applied directly to a base language model without prior supervised instruction tuning.

This method encourages models to discover reasoning strategies autonomously during training, allowing behaviors such as:

- chain-of-thought reasoning  
- self-verification  
- iterative reasoning refinement  

to emerge naturally from the reward signal.

However, purely RL-trained models may also exhibit issues such as:

- repetitive reasoning patterns  
- readability problems  
- mixed language outputs  

---

# Training Data

The training task uses **clinical admission notes paired with ICD-10-CM diagnoses**, derived from de-identified electronic health record datasets such as **MIMIC-IV**.

Task formulation:

- **Input:** admission note describing a patient case  
- **Output:** reasoning trace and predicted ICD-10-CM code  

The model learns to infer diagnostic outcomes based on the textual description of the patient presentation.

---

# Output Format

The model is trained to produce structured outputs separating reasoning from the final diagnosis.

### Example

```text
<think>
The patient presents with ...
Symptoms and history suggest ...
...
</think>

<diagnosis>
M5116
</diagnosis>
```
The reasoning trace allows the model to explain how the diagnosis is derived from the clinical note.

---

## Evaluation

Evaluation follows the methodology described in the **DeepICD-R1 paper**.

Performance is typically measured using **macro-averaged F1 scores** at multiple levels of the ICD hierarchy.

| Level | Description |
|------|-------------|
| Chapter | Broad ICD category |
| Category | First three digits |
| Full code | Complete ICD-10 code |

Hierarchical evaluation allows partial credit when the model predicts the correct high-level diagnostic category even if the full code is incorrect.

---

## Limitations

Models following the DeepICD-R1 framework share several limitations.

### Dataset limitations

- Training data consists primarily of **English clinical notes**
- Distribution reflects **hospital-specific patient populations**
- ICD labels are **highly imbalanced**, affecting rare diagnoses

### Model limitations

- Reasoning traces may appear convincing while being incorrect
- Predictions may fail for rare or long-tail diagnoses
- Models may demonstrate **premature diagnostic closure**
- Reinforcement learning signals are only proxies for expert feedback

---

## Ethical Considerations

This model is trained on **de-identified clinical data** and intended strictly for research.

Potential risks include:

- propagation of dataset biases  
- overconfidence in generated reasoning  
- misuse in clinical decision making  

Appropriate safeguards include:

- expert oversight  
- dataset bias evaluation  
- fairness audits  
- controlled deployment environments  

---

## Hardware and Training Setup

Typical training configuration for models in this family includes:

- **GPUs:** multi-GPU training (4–8 GPUs)  
- **Precision:** bfloat16  
- **Rollout engine:** vLLM  
- **Training framework:** VERL PPO/GRPO trainer  
- **Sampling:** multiple rollouts per prompt  

---

## Usage

### Transformers Example

```python
from transformers import AutoTokenizer, AutoModelForCausalLM

model_id = "DATEXIS/DeepICD-R1-zero-32B"

tokenizer = AutoTokenizer.from_pretrained(model_id)
model = AutoModelForCausalLM.from_pretrained(
    model_id,
    device_map="auto",
    torch_dtype="auto"
)

prompt = """
You are a clinical reasoning model.

Given the following admission note,
produce reasoning in <think> tags
and a final ICD-10 diagnosis in <diagnosis> tags.

[ADMISSION NOTE]
"""

inputs = tokenizer(prompt, return_tensors="pt").to(model.device)

outputs = model.generate(
    **inputs,
    max_new_tokens=512,
)

print(tokenizer.decode(outputs[0], skip_special_tokens=True))
```

## Recommended Inference Practices

- Use prompts consistent with the training format.
- Validate predicted ICD-10 codes against official code formats.
- Always review predictions with medical experts.
- Avoid exposing reasoning traces in safety-critical settings without verification.

---

## Citation

If you use this model, please cite:

```bibtex
@inproceedings{roehr2026deepicdr1,
  title={DeepICD-R1: Medical Reasoning through Hierarchical Rewards and Unsupervised Distillation},
  author={R{\"o}hr, Tom and Steffek, Thomas and Teucher, Roman and Bressem, Keno and others},
  booktitle={Proceedings of LREC-COLING},
  year={2026}
}