Foundations of Large Language Models in Medical Research

The Foundations of Large Language Models in Medical Research course lays the foundation for understanding how generative artificial intelligence (AI) and large language models are transforming biomedical research. Participants explore the opportunities and risks of integrating AI into research workflows, including issues of bias, safety, compliance with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) and institutional governance. Through guided activities in prompt engineering and tool demonstrations, learners acquire practical skills to safely and effectively use large language models in medical research contexts.

Intended audience

This course is suitable for learners at any level of interest in using large language models in medical research. Clinicians, coordinators, data analysts and researchers will benefit from the course material.

Curriculum

Course director

Jaleh Zand, Ph.D.

Course outcomes

  • Explain the role of generative AI and large language models in addressing key challenges in biomedical research.
  • Identifying and applying safe, compliant and ethical practices for using large language models under HIPAA and institutional guidelines.
  • Construct effective prompts using foundational prompt engineering techniques for biomedical research tasks.
  • Explore and evaluate large language model tools and platforms for compliant use in research environments.

Course outline

This online self-paced course is divided into five units:

  1. Why Generative AI? Why Now?
  2. Bias, Safety, Regulation and Governance
  3. HIPAA and Institutional LLM Guidelines
  4. Prompt Engineering Essentials
  5. Using OpenEvidence and OpenAI Models

Registration

Visit the Foundations of Large Language Models in Medical Research Executive Education page to register for this course.

Mayo Clinic employees can visit our intranet site to find out about internal pricing. Users must be logged in to the Mayo Clinic network to access this intranet site.

Contact

Direct questions to the CCaTS Workforce Development team.