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Main Authors: Hossain, Elias, Nipu, Md Mehedi Hasan, Sheikh, Maleeha, Rana, Rajib, Neupane, Subash, Yousefi, Niloofar
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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Online Access:https://arxiv.org/abs/2511.16625
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author Hossain, Elias
Nipu, Md Mehedi Hasan
Sheikh, Maleeha
Rana, Rajib
Neupane, Subash
Yousefi, Niloofar
author_facet Hossain, Elias
Nipu, Md Mehedi Hasan
Sheikh, Maleeha
Rana, Rajib
Neupane, Subash
Yousefi, Niloofar
contents We propose MedBayes-Lite, a lightweight Bayesian enhancement for transformer-based clinical language models that improves reliability through uncertainty-aware prediction. The framework operates without retraining, architectural modification, or additional trainable parameters, and integrates three components: Bayesian Embedding Calibration via Monte Carlo dropout, Uncertainty-Weighted Attention for reliability-aware token aggregation, and Confidence-Guided Decision Shaping for abstention under uncertainty. Across MedQA, PubMedQA, and MIMIC-III, MedBayes-Lite improves calibration and trustworthiness, reducing overconfidence by 32--48\%. In simulated clinical settings, it further supports safer decision-making by flagging uncertain predictions for human review, particularly under distribution shift. For closed API models, the framework remains applicable through sampling-based predictive uncertainty and confidence-guided abstention, while full embedding- and attention-level uncertainty propagation is evaluated on open-weight transformer models.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2511_16625
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle MedBayes-Lite: Bayesian Uncertainty Quantification for Safe Clinical Decision Support
Hossain, Elias
Nipu, Md Mehedi Hasan
Sheikh, Maleeha
Rana, Rajib
Neupane, Subash
Yousefi, Niloofar
Artificial Intelligence
We propose MedBayes-Lite, a lightweight Bayesian enhancement for transformer-based clinical language models that improves reliability through uncertainty-aware prediction. The framework operates without retraining, architectural modification, or additional trainable parameters, and integrates three components: Bayesian Embedding Calibration via Monte Carlo dropout, Uncertainty-Weighted Attention for reliability-aware token aggregation, and Confidence-Guided Decision Shaping for abstention under uncertainty. Across MedQA, PubMedQA, and MIMIC-III, MedBayes-Lite improves calibration and trustworthiness, reducing overconfidence by 32--48\%. In simulated clinical settings, it further supports safer decision-making by flagging uncertain predictions for human review, particularly under distribution shift. For closed API models, the framework remains applicable through sampling-based predictive uncertainty and confidence-guided abstention, while full embedding- and attention-level uncertainty propagation is evaluated on open-weight transformer models.
title MedBayes-Lite: Bayesian Uncertainty Quantification for Safe Clinical Decision Support
topic Artificial Intelligence
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2511.16625