Accelerating clinical evidence synthesis with large language models

Abstract Clinical evidence synthesis largely relies on systematic reviews (SR) of clinical studies from medical literature. Here, we propose a generative artificial intelligence (AI) pipeline named TrialMind to streamline study search, study screening, and data extraction tasks in SR. We chose publi...

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Main Authors: Zifeng Wang, Lang Cao, Benjamin Danek, Qiao Jin, Zhiyong Lu, Jimeng Sun
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Nature Portfolio 2025-08-01
Series:npj Digital Medicine
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41746-025-01840-7
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author Zifeng Wang
Lang Cao
Benjamin Danek
Qiao Jin
Zhiyong Lu
Jimeng Sun
author_facet Zifeng Wang
Lang Cao
Benjamin Danek
Qiao Jin
Zhiyong Lu
Jimeng Sun
author_sort Zifeng Wang
collection DOAJ
description Abstract Clinical evidence synthesis largely relies on systematic reviews (SR) of clinical studies from medical literature. Here, we propose a generative artificial intelligence (AI) pipeline named TrialMind to streamline study search, study screening, and data extraction tasks in SR. We chose published SRs to build TrialReviewBench, which contains 100 SRs and 2,220 clinical studies. For study search, it achieves high recall rates (Ours 0.711–0.834 v.s. Human baseline 0.138–0.232). For study screening, TrialMind beats previous document ranking methods in a 1.5–2.6 fold change. For data extraction, it outperforms a GPT-4’s accuracy by 16–32%. In a pilot study, human-AI collaboration with TrialMind improved recall by 71.4% and reduced screening time by 44.2%, while in data extraction, accuracy increased by 23.5% with a 63.4% time reduction. Medical experts preferred TrialMind’s synthesized evidence over GPT-4’s in 62.5%-100% of cases. These findings show the promise of accelerating clinical evidence synthesis driven by human-AI collaboration.
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publishDate 2025-08-01
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spelling doaj-art-f1f5e5546e9f4484b4f1b46c6b959eb02025-08-20T03:06:08ZengNature Portfolionpj Digital Medicine2398-63522025-08-018111410.1038/s41746-025-01840-7Accelerating clinical evidence synthesis with large language modelsZifeng Wang0Lang Cao1Benjamin Danek2Qiao Jin3Zhiyong Lu4Jimeng Sun5Siebel School of Computing and Data Science, University of Illinois Urbana-ChampaignSiebel School of Computing and Data Science, University of Illinois Urbana-ChampaignSiebel School of Computing and Data Science, University of Illinois Urbana-ChampaignDivision of Intramural Research, National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of HealthDivision of Intramural Research, National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of HealthSiebel School of Computing and Data Science, University of Illinois Urbana-ChampaignAbstract Clinical evidence synthesis largely relies on systematic reviews (SR) of clinical studies from medical literature. Here, we propose a generative artificial intelligence (AI) pipeline named TrialMind to streamline study search, study screening, and data extraction tasks in SR. We chose published SRs to build TrialReviewBench, which contains 100 SRs and 2,220 clinical studies. For study search, it achieves high recall rates (Ours 0.711–0.834 v.s. Human baseline 0.138–0.232). For study screening, TrialMind beats previous document ranking methods in a 1.5–2.6 fold change. For data extraction, it outperforms a GPT-4’s accuracy by 16–32%. In a pilot study, human-AI collaboration with TrialMind improved recall by 71.4% and reduced screening time by 44.2%, while in data extraction, accuracy increased by 23.5% with a 63.4% time reduction. Medical experts preferred TrialMind’s synthesized evidence over GPT-4’s in 62.5%-100% of cases. These findings show the promise of accelerating clinical evidence synthesis driven by human-AI collaboration.https://doi.org/10.1038/s41746-025-01840-7
spellingShingle Zifeng Wang
Lang Cao
Benjamin Danek
Qiao Jin
Zhiyong Lu
Jimeng Sun
Accelerating clinical evidence synthesis with large language models
npj Digital Medicine
title Accelerating clinical evidence synthesis with large language models
title_full Accelerating clinical evidence synthesis with large language models
title_fullStr Accelerating clinical evidence synthesis with large language models
title_full_unstemmed Accelerating clinical evidence synthesis with large language models
title_short Accelerating clinical evidence synthesis with large language models
title_sort accelerating clinical evidence synthesis with large language models
url https://doi.org/10.1038/s41746-025-01840-7
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AT langcao acceleratingclinicalevidencesynthesiswithlargelanguagemodels
AT benjamindanek acceleratingclinicalevidencesynthesiswithlargelanguagemodels
AT qiaojin acceleratingclinicalevidencesynthesiswithlargelanguagemodels
AT zhiyonglu acceleratingclinicalevidencesynthesiswithlargelanguagemodels
AT jimengsun acceleratingclinicalevidencesynthesiswithlargelanguagemodels