Leveraging Large Language Model as Simulated Patients for Clinical Education

Fuente: arXiv
Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Li, Yanzeng, Zeng, Cheng, Zhong, Jialun, Zhang, Ruoyu, Zhang, Minhao, Zou, Lei
Format: Preprint
Published: 2024
Subjects:
Online Access:
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1866916222177640448
author Li, Yanzeng
Zeng, Cheng
Zhong, Jialun
Zhang, Ruoyu
Zhang, Minhao
Zou, Lei
author_facet Li, Yanzeng
Zeng, Cheng
Zhong, Jialun
Zhang, Ruoyu
Zhang, Minhao
Zou, Lei
contents Simulated Patients (SPs) play a crucial role in clinical medical education by providing realistic scenarios for student practice. However, the high cost of training and hiring qualified SPs, along with the heavy workload and potential risks they face in consistently portraying actual patients, limit students' access to this type of clinical training. Consequently, the integration of computer program-based simulated patients has emerged as a valuable educational tool in recent years. With the rapid development of Large Language Models (LLMs), their exceptional capabilities in conversational artificial intelligence and role-playing have been demonstrated, making them a feasible option for implementing Virtual Simulated Patient (VSP). In this paper, we present an integrated model-agnostic framework called CureFun that harnesses the potential of LLMs in clinical medical education. This framework facilitates natural conversations between students and simulated patients, evaluates their dialogue, and provides suggestions to enhance students' clinical inquiry skills. Through comprehensive evaluations, our approach demonstrates more authentic and professional SP-scenario dialogue flows compared to other LLM-based chatbots, thus proving its proficiency in simulating patients. Additionally, leveraging CureFun's evaluation ability, we assess several medical LLMs and discuss the possibilities and limitations of using LLMs as virtual doctors from the perspective of their diagnostic abilities.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2404_13066
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Leveraging Large Language Model as Simulated Patients for Clinical Education
Li, Yanzeng
Zeng, Cheng
Zhong, Jialun
Zhang, Ruoyu
Zhang, Minhao
Zou, Lei
Computation and Language
Artificial Intelligence
Simulated Patients (SPs) play a crucial role in clinical medical education by providing realistic scenarios for student practice. However, the high cost of training and hiring qualified SPs, along with the heavy workload and potential risks they face in consistently portraying actual patients, limit students' access to this type of clinical training. Consequently, the integration of computer program-based simulated patients has emerged as a valuable educational tool in recent years. With the rapid development of Large Language Models (LLMs), their exceptional capabilities in conversational artificial intelligence and role-playing have been demonstrated, making them a feasible option for implementing Virtual Simulated Patient (VSP). In this paper, we present an integrated model-agnostic framework called CureFun that harnesses the potential of LLMs in clinical medical education. This framework facilitates natural conversations between students and simulated patients, evaluates their dialogue, and provides suggestions to enhance students' clinical inquiry skills. Through comprehensive evaluations, our approach demonstrates more authentic and professional SP-scenario dialogue flows compared to other LLM-based chatbots, thus proving its proficiency in simulating patients. Additionally, leveraging CureFun's evaluation ability, we assess several medical LLMs and discuss the possibilities and limitations of using LLMs as virtual doctors from the perspective of their diagnostic abilities.
title Leveraging Large Language Model as Simulated Patients for Clinical Education
topic Computation and Language
Artificial Intelligence
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2404.13066