Large language models (LLMs)
Digital Health and AI
Definition. Large language models are AI systems trained on very large text collections to predict and generate language, which allows them to answer questions, summarise documents and draft text.
Explanation
In health care, LLMs are tested for documentation, patient communication, education and specialised tasks such as assessing causality in adverse drug reaction reports (Abate et al., 2025). In universities, they can be built into teaching to scaffold rather than replace critical thinking (Vendrell & Johnston, 2026).
Their limits are well documented: they can produce fluent but wrong answers, reflect stereotypes and, in simulations, slip into caricature of the groups they imitate (Cheng et al., 2023). Safe use therefore requires task-specific evaluation, human verification of outputs, protection of patient data and transparent disclosure when LLMs contribute to clinical or academic work.
Related concepts
Artificial intelligence (AI) Algorithmic bias AI governance Clinical decision support system Peer review
Read on The Health Topics
- Navigating LLMs in Healthcare: Pitfalls and Potentials
- Can Generative AI Strengthen Critical Thinking? A Pedagogical Framework for LLM Integration in Higher Education
- When AI Speaks Down to Patients
References
Abate, A., Poncato, E., Barbieri, M. A., Powell, G., Rossi, A., Peker, S., … Sessa, M. (2025). Off-the-shelf large language models for causality assessment of individual case safety reports: A proof-of-concept with COVID-19 vaccines. Drug Safety, 48 (7), 805–820. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40264-025-01531-y
Cheng, M., Piccardi, T., & Yang, D. (2023). CoMPosT: Characterizing and evaluating caricature in LLM simulations. In H.
Vendrell, M., & Johnston, S.-K. (2026). Scaffolding critical thinking with generative AI: Design principles for integrating large language models in higher education. Computers and Education: Artificial Intelligence. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.caeai.2026.100572
Cite this entry: Kurutkan, M. N. (2026). Large language models (LLMs). In The Health Topics glossary. https://healthtopic.org/glossary/large-language-models/