Editing with AI: How Doctors Refine LLM-Generated Answers to Patient Queries

Fuente: arXiv
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Auteurs principaux: Sharma, Rahul, Ramjee, Pragnya, Murali, Kaushik, Jain, Mohit
Format: Preprint
Publié: 2025
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author Sharma, Rahul
Ramjee, Pragnya
Murali, Kaushik
Jain, Mohit
author_facet Sharma, Rahul
Ramjee, Pragnya
Murali, Kaushik
Jain, Mohit
contents Patients frequently seek information during their medical journeys, but the rising volume of digital patient messages has strained healthcare systems. Large language models (LLMs) offer promise in generating draft responses for clinicians, yet how physicians refine these drafts remains underexplored. We present a mixed-methods study with nine ophthalmologists answering 144 cataract surgery questions across three conditions: writing from scratch, directly editing LLM drafts, and instruction-based indirect editing. Our quantitative and qualitative analyses reveal that while LLM outputs were generally accurate, occasional errors and automation bias revealed the need for human oversight. Contextualization--adapting generic answers to local practices and patient expectations--emerged as a dominant form of editing. Editing workflows revealed trade-offs: indirect editing reduced effort but introduced errors, while direct editing ensured precision but with higher workload. We conclude with design and policy implications for building safe, scalable LLM-assisted clinical communication systems.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2511_19940
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Editing with AI: How Doctors Refine LLM-Generated Answers to Patient Queries
Sharma, Rahul
Ramjee, Pragnya
Murali, Kaushik
Jain, Mohit
Human-Computer Interaction
H.5.2
Patients frequently seek information during their medical journeys, but the rising volume of digital patient messages has strained healthcare systems. Large language models (LLMs) offer promise in generating draft responses for clinicians, yet how physicians refine these drafts remains underexplored. We present a mixed-methods study with nine ophthalmologists answering 144 cataract surgery questions across three conditions: writing from scratch, directly editing LLM drafts, and instruction-based indirect editing. Our quantitative and qualitative analyses reveal that while LLM outputs were generally accurate, occasional errors and automation bias revealed the need for human oversight. Contextualization--adapting generic answers to local practices and patient expectations--emerged as a dominant form of editing. Editing workflows revealed trade-offs: indirect editing reduced effort but introduced errors, while direct editing ensured precision but with higher workload. We conclude with design and policy implications for building safe, scalable LLM-assisted clinical communication systems.
title Editing with AI: How Doctors Refine LLM-Generated Answers to Patient Queries
topic Human-Computer Interaction
H.5.2
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2511.19940