LLMs in Healthcare: A Measured Path to Impact

McKinsey estimates that generative AI, including LLMs, could unlock up to $1 trillion in value for the healthcare sector. This value could manifest in many ways, from improving clinical outcomes and reducing operational inefficiencies to streamlining administrative tasks. Healthcare, however, is unlike finance or retail, where AI adoption has rapidly advanced. It is a field where a single error can have life-or-death consequences. Additionally, patient safety, privacy, and ethical considerations present significant challenges for seamless AI integration.Healthcare’s diversity adds further challenges. Each discipline has unique workflows, data structures, and regulations. Many LLMs have been trained and fine-tuned on clinical data, each with its own performance scorecard. Some are better suited for specific healthcare tasks, such as aiding in drug discovery, while others excel at automating patient communication or interpreting medical images.