Evidence map›Paper›PMID 39433945›Full record

ArticleNPJ digital medicine2024

Evaluation and mitigation of cognitive biases in medical language models.

Samuel Schmidgall, Carl Harris, Ime Essien, Daniel Olshvang, Tawsifur Rahman, Ji Woong Kim, Rojin Ziaei, Jason Eshraghian, Peter Abadir, Rama Chellappa

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in NPJ digital medicine, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 40 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
40citing papers in PubMed, 1 pooled it
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

40 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.

  1. Pooled it
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  9. Comparing the performance of four mainstream large language models on medical literature review generation: a human expert evaluation in SMILE surgery.Graefe's archive for clinical and experimental ophthalmology = Albrecht von Graefes Archiv fur klinische und experimentelle Ophthalmologie · 2026
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4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

10 authors.

Samuel Schmidgall *Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA. sschmi46@jhu.edu.
Carl Harris *Department of Biomedical Engineering, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA.
Ime EssienDepartment of Biomedical Engineering, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA.
Daniel OlshvangDepartment of Biomedical Engineering, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA.
Tawsifur RahmanDepartment of Biomedical Engineering, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA.
Ji Woong KimDepartment of Mechanical Engineering, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA.
Rojin ZiaeiDepartment of Computer Science, University of Maryland, College Park, MD, USA.
Jason EshraghianDepartment of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of California, Santa Cruz, CA, USA.
Peter AbadirDivision of Geriatric Medicine and Gerontology, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA.
Rama ChellappaDepartment of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA.

Funding

Utilizing Technology and AI Approaches to Facilitate Independence andResilience in Older AdultsP30AG073104 · NIA · JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY · PI Peter M. Abadir, Alexis Battle · 2021 to 2026
$31.2M
National Science Foundation (NSF) 2139757NIA NIH HHS P30 AG073104U.S. Department of Health & Human Services | NIH | National Institute on Aging (U.S. National Institute on Aging) P30AG073104
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Increasing interest in applying large language models (LLMs) to medicine is due in part to their impressive performance on medical exam questions. However, these exams do not capture the complexity of real patient-doctor interactions because of factors like patient compliance, experience, and cognitive bias. We hypothesized that LLMs would produce less accurate responses when faced with clinically biased questions as compared to unbiased ones. To test this, we developed the BiasMedQA dataset, which consists of 1273 USMLE questions modified to replicate common clinically relevant cognitive biases. We assessed six LLMs on BiasMedQA and found that GPT-4 stood out for its resilience to bias, in contrast to Llama 2 70B-chat and PMC Llama 13B, which showed large drops in performance. Additionally, we introduced three bias mitigation strategies, which improved but did not fully restore accuracy. Our findings highlight the need to improve LLMs' robustness to cognitive biases, in order to achieve more reliable applications of LLMs in healthcare.

Identifiers

PMID39433945
PMCPMC11494053

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.