Large Language Model Few-Shot Prompting with Dilemma Training Outperforms Human Surrogates in Predicting Patient Preferences
2608.25771

Authors

Aung Thiha,Gerald CH Koh,Brian David Earp,Natasha Ureyang,Sebastian Porsdam Mann

Abstract

In serious illness, human surrogates often struggle to accurately predict patient preferences (68% accuracy), causing decision conflict. Personalized Patient Preference Predictor (P4) agents offer a potential solution, but prior prototypes treat values as static ratings, ignoring the contextual, situation-dependent nature of medical choices.

Grounded in the 'logic of care', we present P4-DT (Dilemma Training), a P4 agent that constructs a patient decision policy by engaging users with varied medical dilemmas, eliciting individual preference reasoning through bi-directional training. In a study with 12 patient-surrogate dyads, P4-DT predicted patient treatment choices with 81.7% accuracy, significantly exceeding chance (OR = 5.61 [2.03, 15.51], p < .001) and outperforming both unassisted surrogates (55.0%; OR = 3.67 [1.59, 8.47], p = .002) and surrogates assisted by P4-DT (61.7%).

Comparative prompt analyses showed that incorporating contextual scenario decisions and open-ended text improved accuracy by 15.0 percentage points over initial values ratings alone. We discuss implications for further testing and designing of context-aware AI agents that embody richer human experience to partner in complex decision-making.

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