Development and Testing of a Novel Large Language Model-Based Clinical Decision Support Systems for Medication Safety in 12 Clinical Specialties

Importance: We introduce a novel Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG)-Large Language Model (LLM) as a Clinical Decision Support System (CDSS) for safe medication prescription. This model addresses the limitations of traditional rule-based CDSS by providing relevant prescribing error alerts tailored to patient context and institutional guidelines. Objective: The study evaluates the efficacy of an LLM-based CDSS in identifying medication errors across various medical and surgical case vignettes, compared to a human expert panel. It also examines clinician preferences among different CDSS integration modalities: junior pharmacist, LLM-based CDSS alone, and a combination of both. Design, Setting, and Participants: Utilizing a RAG model with GPT-4.0, the study involved 61 prescribing error scenarios within 23 clinical vignettes across 12 specialties. An expert panel assessed these cases using the PCNE classification and NCC MERP index. Three junior pharmacists independently reviewed each vignette under simulated conditions. Main Outcomes and Measures: The study assesses the LLM-based CDSS's accuracy, precision, recall, and F1 scores in identifying Drug-Related Problems (DRPs), compared to junior pharmacists alone or in an assistive mode with the CDSS. Results: The co-pilot mode of RAG-LLM significantly improved DRP identification accuracy by 22% over solo pharmacists. It showed higher recall and F1 scores, indicating better detection of severe DRPs, despite a slight decrease in precision. Accuracy varied across categories when pharmacists had access to RAG-LLM responses. Conclusions: The RAG-LLM based CDSS enhances medication error identification accuracy when used with junior pharmacists, especially in detecting severe DRPs.