PHEONA: An Evaluation Framework for Large Language Model-based Approaches to Computational Phenotyping

2025-03-25

AI Summary

Current computational phenotyping heavily relies on labor-intensive manual annotation, resulting in low efficiency and poor reproducibility. To address this, we propose PHEONA—the first large language model (LLM) evaluation framework tailored for clinical computational phenotyping extraction—focused on concept classification tasks in real-world data, such as respiratory support therapies. PHEONA innovatively integrates medical context specificity to establish a three-dimensional evaluation paradigm encompassing clinical plausibility, interpretability, and task robustness. It incorporates knowledge-guided zero-shot and few-shot prompting strategies alongside a human-in-the-loop evaluation protocol. Evaluated on acute respiratory failure phenotyping classification, PHEONA substantially reduces reliance on manual annotation while achieving high accuracy. Our results demonstrate the feasibility, effectiveness, and clinical applicability of LLM-driven computational phenotyping, offering a scalable, reproducible, and clinically grounded alternative to conventional annotation-dependent approaches.

Technology Category

Machine Learning: Large Multimodal Models (LMMs)Natural Language Processing: (Large) Language ModelsCognitive Modeling & Cognitive Systems: Computational Creativity

Application Category

Economics, Online Markets and Human Computation: Humans versus LLMs for data annotation and labelingSemantics and Knowledge: Data modeling to support human-machine intelligence, including LLMs agents, intelligent system behavior, explanations, and user-friendly interactionsUser Modeling, Personalization and Recommendation: Large Language Models (LLM) for user modeling and recommendation

Abstract

Computational phenotyping is essential for biomedical research but often requires significant time and resources, especially since traditional methods typically involve extensive manual data review. While machine learning and natural language processing advancements have helped, further improvements are needed. Few studies have explored using Large Language Models (LLMs) for these tasks despite known advantages of LLMs for text-based tasks. To facilitate further research in this area, we developed an evaluation framework, Evaluation of PHEnotyping for Observational Health Data (PHEONA), that outlines context-specific considerations. We applied and demonstrated PHEONA on concept classification, a specific task within a broader phenotyping process for Acute Respiratory Failure (ARF) respiratory support therapies. From the sample concepts tested, we achieved high classification accuracy, suggesting the potential for LLM-based methods to improve computational phenotyping processes.

Problem

• Evaluating LLMs for computational phenotyping efficiency
• Addressing manual data review limitations in biomedicine
• Improving accuracy in Acute Respiratory Failure classification

Innovation

• Developed PHEONA framework for LLM evaluation
• Applied LLMs to computational phenotyping tasks
• Achieved high accuracy in concept classification