The Role of Language Models in Modern Healthcare: A Comprehensive Review

Abstract: The application of LLMs in healthcare has gained significant attention due to their ability to process complex medical data and provide insights for clinical decision-making. These models have demonstrated substantial capabilities in understanding and generating natural language, which is crucial for medical documentation, diagnostics, and patient interaction. This review examines the trajectory of LLMs from their early stages to the current state-of-the-art LLMs, highlighting their strengths in healthcare applications and discussing challenges such as data privacy, bias, and ethical considerations. The potential of LLMs to enhance healthcare delivery is explored, alongside the necessary steps to ensure their ethical and effective integration into medical practice.