Large Language Models Struggle in Token-Level Clinical Named Entity Recognition

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Main Authors: Lu, Qiuhao, Li, Rui, Wen, Andrew, Wang, Jinlian, Wang, Liwei, Liu, Hongfang
Format: Preprint
Published: 2024
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_version_ 1866911992435965952
author Lu, Qiuhao
Li, Rui
Wen, Andrew
Wang, Jinlian
Wang, Liwei
Liu, Hongfang
author_facet Lu, Qiuhao
Li, Rui
Wen, Andrew
Wang, Jinlian
Wang, Liwei
Liu, Hongfang
contents Large Language Models (LLMs) have revolutionized various sectors, including healthcare where they are employed in diverse applications. Their utility is particularly significant in the context of rare diseases, where data scarcity, complexity, and specificity pose considerable challenges. In the clinical domain, Named Entity Recognition (NER) stands out as an essential task and it plays a crucial role in extracting relevant information from clinical texts. Despite the promise of LLMs, current research mostly concentrates on document-level NER, identifying entities in a more general context across entire documents, without extracting their precise location. Additionally, efforts have been directed towards adapting ChatGPT for token-level NER. However, there is a significant research gap when it comes to employing token-level NER for clinical texts, especially with the use of local open-source LLMs. This study aims to bridge this gap by investigating the effectiveness of both proprietary and local LLMs in token-level clinical NER. Essentially, we delve into the capabilities of these models through a series of experiments involving zero-shot prompting, few-shot prompting, retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), and instruction-fine-tuning. Our exploration reveals the inherent challenges LLMs face in token-level NER, particularly in the context of rare diseases, and suggests possible improvements for their application in healthcare. This research contributes to narrowing a significant gap in healthcare informatics and offers insights that could lead to a more refined application of LLMs in the healthcare sector.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2407_00731
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Large Language Models Struggle in Token-Level Clinical Named Entity Recognition
Lu, Qiuhao
Li, Rui
Wen, Andrew
Wang, Jinlian
Wang, Liwei
Liu, Hongfang
Computation and Language
Artificial Intelligence
Machine Learning
Large Language Models (LLMs) have revolutionized various sectors, including healthcare where they are employed in diverse applications. Their utility is particularly significant in the context of rare diseases, where data scarcity, complexity, and specificity pose considerable challenges. In the clinical domain, Named Entity Recognition (NER) stands out as an essential task and it plays a crucial role in extracting relevant information from clinical texts. Despite the promise of LLMs, current research mostly concentrates on document-level NER, identifying entities in a more general context across entire documents, without extracting their precise location. Additionally, efforts have been directed towards adapting ChatGPT for token-level NER. However, there is a significant research gap when it comes to employing token-level NER for clinical texts, especially with the use of local open-source LLMs. This study aims to bridge this gap by investigating the effectiveness of both proprietary and local LLMs in token-level clinical NER. Essentially, we delve into the capabilities of these models through a series of experiments involving zero-shot prompting, few-shot prompting, retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), and instruction-fine-tuning. Our exploration reveals the inherent challenges LLMs face in token-level NER, particularly in the context of rare diseases, and suggests possible improvements for their application in healthcare. This research contributes to narrowing a significant gap in healthcare informatics and offers insights that could lead to a more refined application of LLMs in the healthcare sector.
title Large Language Models Struggle in Token-Level Clinical Named Entity Recognition
topic Computation and Language
Artificial Intelligence
Machine Learning
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2407.00731