Patient-Centered RAG for Oncology Visit Aid Following the Ottawa Decision Guide
Journal:
arXiv
Published Date:
Jul 5, 2025
Abstract
Effective communication is essential in cancer care, yet patients often face
challenges in preparing for complex medical visits. We present an interactive,
Retrieval-augmented Generation-assisted system that helps patients progress
from uninformed to visit-ready. Our system adapts the Ottawa Personal Decision
Guide into a dynamic retrieval-augmented generation workflow, helping users
bridge knowledge gaps, clarify personal values and generate useful questions
for their upcoming visits. Focusing on localized prostate cancer, we conduct a
user study with patients and a clinical expert. Results show high system
usability (UMUX Mean = 6.0 out of 7), strong relevance of generated content
(Mean = 6.7 out of 7), minimal need for edits, and high clinical faithfulness
(Mean = 6.82 out of 7). This work demonstrates the potential of combining
patient-centered design with language models to enhance clinical preparation in
oncology care.
