Paper ID: 2410.18856

Demystifying Large Language Models for Medicine: A Primer

Qiao Jin, Nicholas Wan, Robert Leaman, Shubo Tian, Zhizheng Wang, Yifan Yang, Zifeng Wang, Guangzhi Xiong, Po-Ting Lai, Qingqing Zhu, Benjamin Hou, Maame Sarfo-Gyamfi, Gongbo Zhang, Aidan Gilson, Balu Bhasuran, Zhe He, Aidong Zhang, Jimeng Sun, Chunhua Weng, Ronald M. Summers, Qingyu Chen, Yifan Peng, Zhiyong Lu

Large language models (LLMs) represent a transformative class of AI tools capable of revolutionizing various aspects of healthcare by generating human-like responses across diverse contexts and adapting to novel tasks following human instructions. Their potential application spans a broad range of medical tasks, such as clinical documentation, matching patients to clinical trials, and answering medical questions. In this primer paper, we propose an actionable guideline to help healthcare professionals more efficiently utilize LLMs in their work, along with a set of best practices. This approach consists of several main phases, including formulating the task, choosing LLMs, prompt engineering, fine-tuning, and deployment. We start with the discussion of critical considerations in identifying healthcare tasks that align with the core capabilities of LLMs and selecting models based on the selected task and data, performance requirements, and model interface. We then review the strategies, such as prompt engineering and fine-tuning, to adapt standard LLMs to specialized medical tasks. Deployment considerations, including regulatory compliance, ethical guidelines, and continuous monitoring for fairness and bias, are also discussed. By providing a structured step-by-step methodology, this tutorial aims to equip healthcare professionals with the tools necessary to effectively integrate LLMs into clinical practice, ensuring that these powerful technologies are applied in a safe, reliable, and impactful manner.

Submitted: Oct 24, 2024