October 17, 2025Open Access

A Critical Look at a Critical Care Dataset: MIMIC-IV's Construction, Contents, & Consequences

Key Points

MIMIC-IV requires enhanced documentation to facilitate appropriate use, ensuring maximum benefit for researchers.
In-depth analysis identified gaps in the dataset structure and access processes through critical readings.
Recommendations were proposed for future dataset creators to improve documentation and usability overall.
Critical Data Studies can greatly benefit from an improved understanding of datasets like MIMIC-IV and their usage.

Abstract

MIMIC (Medical Information Mart for Intensive Care) is one of the largest, most commonly-used, freely available datasets containing intensive care unit data. I conduct denotative, connotative, and deconstructive readings of the MIMIC-IV dataset through an analysis of the data sources, dataset structure, and the process for getting access to the data, as well as documents and concepts related to the dataset. As a result, I demonstrate that the MIMIC-IV dataset requires more documentation, including an expansion of the existing descriptions, in order to ensure the data is used appropriately and allow for maximum benefit. I make recommendations for future users of the MIMIC-IV dataset, creators of datasets in general, and researchers in the Critical Data Studies field based on my findings.

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