By Jill Adams | Illustrations by Gordon Studer
Clinical Research Briefs
Automated & Customized Nutrition Advice for Cancer Patients
Good nutrition can contribute to the overall health of cancer patients. However, personalized dietary advice can be hard to access.
In a recent study published in Nutrients, a research team led by researcher Nicole Simone, MD, at Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center tested two widely available large language models (LLMs) — ChatGPT and Gemini — to generate meal plans and grocery lists for specific patient characteristics.
Sidney Kimmel Medical College student and first author, Julia Logan, tested prompts for several variables including cancer stage, other health conditions, budgets, geographic location and cultural preferences.
“It would be nearly impossible to build a specialized model from scratch,” says co-author and computational physicist Wookjin Choi, PhD. “The general LLMs provide a starting place, and then we develop it, score it, adjust it and create a new specialized model.”
“We were pleasantly surprised by the granularity the tools achieved, such as cost and nearby grocery stores with available ingredients,” says Dr. Simone, the Margaret Q. Landenberger Professor of Radiation Oncology. The LLMs were also able to generate meal plans tailored to socioeconomic and cultural considerations, promoting adherence by integrating financial constraints and ethnic food choices.
This study demonstrated the feasibility of creating an AI tool to generate and support dietary advice tailored to cancer patients. The team is now identifying the limits of the AI tool’s reliability and when oversight by professional dietitians is needed.
How Primary Care Clinics Can Help Curb the Opioid Epidemic
By Marilyn Perkins | Illustrations by Gordon Studer
Overdose deaths from synthetic opioids such as fentanyl have increased more than 100-fold since 1999. Many barriers exist to people with opioid use disorder (OUD) getting lifesaving medications, from lack of provider training to social stigma.
“These things can be major barriers when you’re in the throes of withdrawal or addiction,” explains psychologist Erin Kelly, PhD.
Dr. Kelly led a team along with fellow researcher Gregory Jaffe, MD, to pilot a substance use disorders clinic embedded within the Jefferson family medicine clinic and residency program, aiming to create low-barrier access to lifesaving medications within primary care.
Primary care providers (PCPs) are often a patient’s first point of contact in the medical system, making them a key route for prescribing OUD medications. PCPs in the practice first received X-Waiver training — a certification that was required up until 2022 to prescribe certain OUD medications. The physicians also completed training in harm reduction and trauma-informed care.
From their findings published in Substance Use & Misuse, patient feedback was overwhelmingly positive: They appreciated how effective and easy the treatments were to access, noting that they didn’t feel stigmatized by their PCPs.
Dr. Jaffe says programs like these can position PCPs at the front lines of combating the opioid epidemic. Sidney Kimmel Medical College students Sarah Lawson, Allie Hamilton, Jordan Lazarus and postdoctoral researcher Erica Li, PhD, helped conduct the study.