Cited by 153Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare and EducationTopic ModelingMachine Learning in Healthcare

A survey of large language models for healthcare: from data, technology, and applications to accountability and ethics

Open access
He, Kai, Mao, Rui, Lin, Qika, Ruan, Yucheng, Lan, Xiang, Feng, Mengling, Cambria, Erik·2025·Information Fusion

Abstract

The utilization of large language models (LLMs) for Healthcare has generated both excitement and concern due to their ability to effectively respond to free-text queries with certain professional knowledge. This survey outlines the capabilities of the currently developed Healthcare LLMs and explicates their development process , to provide an overview of the development road map from traditional Pretrained Language Models (PLMs) to LLMs. Specifically, we first explore the potential of LLMs to enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of various Healthcare applications highlighting both the strengths and limitations. Secondly, we conduct a comparison between the previous PLMs and the latest LLMs, and summarize related Healthcare training data , learning methods, and usage. Finally, the unique concerns associated with deploying LLMs are investigated, particularly regarding fairness, accountability, transparency, and ethics. Besides, we support researchers by compiling a collection of open-source resources 1 . Summarily, we contend that a significant paradigm shift is underway, transitioning from PLMs to LLMs. This shift encompasses a move from discriminative AI approaches to generative AI approaches, as well as a move from model-centered methodologies to data-centered methodologies. We determine that the biggest obstacle of using LLMs in Healthcare are fairness, accountability, transparency and ethics.

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Crossref · 10.1016/j.inffus.2025.102963

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  • Privacy concerns are exacerbated in regions where cloud-based access is needed, external storage is required, and data privacy regulations do not exist.

    “Privacy concerns are exacerbated in regions where cloud-based access is needed, or where external storage is required, and where data privacy regulations do not exist [51].”
  • Physicians are now expected to understand how algorithmic systems process data, the biases they may inherit, and how these biases influence patient care, in addition to interpreting biological signals and making clinical decisions.

    “Physicians are now expected not only to interpret biological signals and make clinical decisions but also to understand how algorithmic systems process data, the biases they may inherit, and how these biases influence patient care [3, 4].”

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Authors
He, K., Mao, R., Lin, Q., Ruan, Y., Lan, X., Feng, M., & Cambria, E.
Affiliations
  • National University of Singapore (SG)
  • Nanyang Technological University (SG)
Corresponding author
Feng, Mengling
Venue
Information Fusion
Publisher
Elsevier BV
Published
2025-06
Volume
118
Pages
102963
ISSN
1566-2535 (ISSN-L)
OpenAlex
W4406602253
Cited by
147
References
207
Citations by year
2026: 59 · 2025: 83 · 2024: 5
FWCI
34.18
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • Information Fusion (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • DR-NTU (Nanyang Technological University) (submittedVersion)
Funders
National Research Foundation (AISG-GC-2019-001-2A, AISG2-TC-2022-004)
Topics
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Health Informatics › Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare and Education
  • Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Artificial Intelligence › Topic Modeling
  • Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Artificial Intelligence › Machine Learning in Healthcare
Keywords
large language models, medical applications, pre-trained language models, generative AI, fairness, accountability, transparency, AI ethics, open source resources

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