AISep 14, 2020Code
VacSIM: Learning Effective Strategies for COVID-19 Vaccine Distribution using Reinforcement LearningRaghav Awasthi, Keerat Kaur Guliani, Saif Ahmad Khan et al.
A COVID-19 vaccine is our best bet for mitigating the ongoing onslaught of the pandemic. However, vaccine is also expected to be a limited resource. An optimal allocation strategy, especially in countries with access inequities and temporal separation of hot-spots, might be an effective way of halting the disease spread. We approach this problem by proposing a novel pipeline VacSIM that dovetails Deep Reinforcement Learning models into a Contextual Bandits approach for optimizing the distribution of COVID-19 vaccine. Whereas the Reinforcement Learning models suggest better actions and rewards, Contextual Bandits allow online modifications that may need to be implemented on a day-to-day basis in the real world scenario. We evaluate this framework against a naive allocation approach of distributing vaccine proportional to the incidence of COVID-19 cases in five different States across India (Assam, Delhi, Jharkhand, Maharashtra and Nagaland) and demonstrate up to 9039 potential infections prevented and a significant increase in the efficacy of limiting the spread over a period of 45 days through the VacSIM approach. Our models and the platform are extensible to all states of India and potentially across the globe. We also propose novel evaluation strategies including standard compartmental model-based projections and a causality-preserving evaluation of our model. Since all models carry assumptions that may need to be tested in various contexts, we open source our model VacSIM and contribute a new reinforcement learning environment compatible with OpenAI gym to make it extensible for real-world applications across the globe. (http://vacsim.tavlab.iiitd.edu.in:8000/).
CLJul 11, 2025
Evaluating LLMs in Medicine: A Call for Rigor, TransparencyMahmoud Alwakeel, Aditya Nagori, Vijay Krishnamoorthy et al.
Objectives: To evaluate the current limitations of large language models (LLMs) in medical question answering, focusing on the quality of datasets used for their evaluation. Materials and Methods: Widely-used benchmark datasets, including MedQA, MedMCQA, PubMedQA, and MMLU, were reviewed for their rigor, transparency, and relevance to clinical scenarios. Alternatives, such as challenge questions in medical journals, were also analyzed to identify their potential as unbiased evaluation tools. Results: Most existing datasets lack clinical realism, transparency, and robust validation processes. Publicly available challenge questions offer some benefits but are limited by their small size, narrow scope, and exposure to LLM training. These gaps highlight the need for secure, comprehensive, and representative datasets. Conclusion: A standardized framework is critical for evaluating LLMs in medicine. Collaborative efforts among institutions and policymakers are needed to ensure datasets and methodologies are rigorous, unbiased, and reflective of clinical complexities.
AIJan 28
Planner-Auditor Twin: Agentic Discharge Planning with FHIR-Based LLM Planning, Guideline Recall, Optional Caching and Self-ImprovementKaiyuan Wu, Aditya Nagori, Rishikesan Kamaleswaran
Objective: Large language models (LLMs) show promise for clinical discharge planning, but their use is constrained by hallucination, omissions, and miscalibrated confidence. We introduce a self-improving, cache-optional Planner-Auditor framework that improves safety and reliability by decoupling generation from deterministic validation and targeted replay. Materials and Methods: We implemented an agentic, retrospective, FHIR-native evaluation pipeline using MIMIC-IV-on-FHIR. For each patient, the Planner (LLM) generates a structured discharge action plan with an explicit confidence estimate. The Auditor is a deterministic module that evaluates multi-task coverage, tracks calibration (Brier score, ECE proxies), and monitors action-distribution drift. The framework supports two-tier self-improvement: (i) within-episode regeneration when enabled, and (ii) cross-episode discrepancy buffering with replay for high-confidence, low-coverage cases. Results: While context caching improved performance over baseline, the self-improvement loop was the primary driver of gains, increasing task coverage from 32% to 86%. Calibration improved substantially, with reduced Brier/ECE and fewer high-confidence misses. Discrepancy buffering further corrected persistent high-confidence omissions during replay. Discussion: Feedback-driven regeneration and targeted replay act as effective control mechanisms to reduce omissions and improve confidence reliability in structured clinical planning. Separating an LLM Planner from a rule-based, observational Auditor enables systematic reliability measurement and safer iteration without model retraining. Conclusion: The Planner-Auditor framework offers a practical pathway toward safer automated discharge planning using interoperable FHIR data access and deterministic auditing, supported by reproducible ablations and reliability-focused evaluation.
CLSep 16, 2025
Performance of Large Language Models in Answering Critical Care Medicine QuestionsMahmoud Alwakeel, Aditya Nagori, An-Kwok Ian Wong et al.
Large Language Models have been tested on medical student-level questions, but their performance in specialized fields like Critical Care Medicine (CCM) is less explored. This study evaluated Meta-Llama 3.1 models (8B and 70B parameters) on 871 CCM questions. Llama3.1:70B outperformed 8B by 30%, with 60% average accuracy. Performance varied across domains, highest in Research (68.4%) and lowest in Renal (47.9%), highlighting the need for broader future work to improve models across various subspecialty domains.
IRJul 30, 2025
Open-Source Agentic Hybrid RAG Framework for Scientific Literature ReviewAditya Nagori, Ricardo Accorsi Casonatto, Ayush Gautam et al.
The surge in scientific publications challenges traditional review methods, demanding tools that integrate structured metadata with full-text analysis. Hybrid Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG) systems, combining graph queries with vector search offer promise but are typically static, rely on proprietary tools, and lack uncertainty estimates. We present an agentic approach that encapsulates the hybrid RAG pipeline within an autonomous agent capable of (1) dynamically selecting between GraphRAG and VectorRAG for each query, (2) adapting instruction-tuned generation in real time to researcher needs, and (3) quantifying uncertainty during inference. This dynamic orchestration improves relevance, reduces hallucinations, and promotes reproducibility. Our pipeline ingests bibliometric open-access data from PubMed, arXiv, and Google Scholar APIs, builds a Neo4j citation-based knowledge graph (KG), and embeds full-text PDFs into a FAISS vector store (VS) using the all-MiniLM-L6-v2 model. A Llama-3.3-70B agent selects GraphRAG (translating queries to Cypher for KG) or VectorRAG (combining sparse and dense retrieval with re-ranking). Instruction tuning refines domain-specific generation, and bootstrapped evaluation yields standard deviation for evaluation metrics. On synthetic benchmarks mimicking real-world queries, the Instruction-Tuned Agent with Direct Preference Optimization (DPO) outperforms the baseline, achieving a gain of 0.63 in VS Context Recall and a 0.56 gain in overall Context Precision. Additional gains include 0.24 in VS Faithfulness, 0.12 in both VS Precision and KG Answer Relevance, 0.11 in overall Faithfulness score, 0.05 in KG Context Recall, and 0.04 in both VS Answer Relevance and overall Precision. These results highlight the system's improved reasoning over heterogeneous sources and establish a scalable framework for autonomous, agentic scientific discovery.
QMMay 14, 2025
Contextual Phenotyping of Pediatric Sepsis Cohort Using Large Language ModelsAditya Nagori, Ayush Gautam, Matthew O. Wiens et al.
Clustering patient subgroups is essential for personalized care and efficient resource use. Traditional clustering methods struggle with high-dimensional, heterogeneous healthcare data and lack contextual understanding. This study evaluates Large Language Model (LLM) based clustering against classical methods using a pediatric sepsis dataset from a low-income country (LIC), containing 2,686 records with 28 numerical and 119 categorical variables. Patient records were serialized into text with and without a clustering objective. Embeddings were generated using quantized LLAMA 3.1 8B, DeepSeek-R1-Distill-Llama-8B with low-rank adaptation(LoRA), and Stella-En-400M-V5 models. K-means clustering was applied to these embeddings. Classical comparisons included K-Medoids clustering on UMAP and FAMD-reduced mixed data. Silhouette scores and statistical tests evaluated cluster quality and distinctiveness. Stella-En-400M-V5 achieved the highest Silhouette Score (0.86). LLAMA 3.1 8B with the clustering objective performed better with higher number of clusters, identifying subgroups with distinct nutritional, clinical, and socioeconomic profiles. LLM-based methods outperformed classical techniques by capturing richer context and prioritizing key features. These results highlight potential of LLMs for contextual phenotyping and informed decision-making in resource-limited settings.