Integrating a Large language Model (LLM) with Public Health Electronic Medical Records to Support a FAIR and Sustainable South African Health Data Space

Ziyaad Dangor of the Vaccines and Infectious Diseases Analytics Research Unit of Wits Health Consortium (Pty) Limited and Jenny Coetzee with Minja Milovanovic of African Potential Management Consultancy (Pty) Ltd, together with Andreas Cambitsis and Emma Gibson of Business Science Corporation Global and Mirjam van Reisen and Samson Yohannes of Virus Outbreak Data Network (Vodan)-Africa, all in South Africa, will develop an LLM supporting clinicians’ note taking to improve patient care. The LLM will be integrated into 1beat, a South African-developed electronic medical record system. They will fine-tune the LLM as an AI assistant during patient intake and discharge to improve quality as well as consistency in digital patient records, and they will ensure the clinical data is Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable (FAIR). This will improve patient care as well as health research. They will also survey relevant stakeholders to develop a business model to support the further development and sustainability of the 1beat system.