Large Language Models in Integrative Medicine: Progress, Challenges, and Opportunities.

Area of Science:

• Artificial Intelligence in Medicine
• Integrative Healthcare
• Computational Linguistics

Background:

• Integrating Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) with modern medicine faces challenges due to a lack of unified frameworks and standardized diagnostic criteria.
• Large Language Models (LLMs) show promise for harmonizing diverse medical systems, but their application in integrative medicine is underexplored.
• Existing LLMs often lack domain-specific training for the nuances of both TCM and modern medicine, limiting their effectiveness in integrative tasks.

Purpose of the Study:

• To systematically review the development, deployment, and challenges of LLMs in harmonizing modern medicine and TCM.
• To identify actionable strategies for advancing the application of LLMs in integrative medicine.
• To explore the potential of LLMs to bridge the empirical knowledge of TCM with modern medical systems.

Main Methods:

• Summarized existing LLMs across general, modern medicine, and TCM domains, detailing model structures, parameters, and training data.
• Conducted benchmark experiments to highlight limitations of current LLMs in integrative medicine tasks.
• Analyzed unique applications and discussed development challenges and potential solutions for LLMs in integrative medicine.

Main Results:

• Identified significant fragmentation and lack of standardization as key barriers in integrating TCM and modern medicine.
• Demonstrated limitations of current general-domain and medicine-specific LLMs in handling integrative medicine tasks.
• Highlighted unique potential applications of LLMs for tasks such as diagnostic support and treatment recommendation in integrative settings.

Conclusions:

• LLMs offer a promising technological pathway to bridge the empirical wisdom of TCM with the systematic approach of modern medicine.
• Addressing methodological fragmentation and domain-specific training is crucial for effective LLM deployment in integrative medicine.
• AI-driven synergies through LLMs can redefine personalized care, optimize therapeutic outcomes, and foster holistic healthcare innovation.