Position: Thematic Analysis of Unstructured Clinical Transcripts with Large Language Models

• URL: http://arxiv.org/abs/2509.14597v2
• Date: Sun, 28 Sep 2025 18:36:22 GMT
• Title: Position: Thematic Analysis of Unstructured Clinical Transcripts with Large Language Models
• Authors: Seungjun Yi, Joakim Nguyen, Terence Lim, Andrew Well, Joseph Skrovan, Mehak Beri, YongGeon Lee, Kavita Radhakrishnan, Liu Leqi, Mia Markey, Ying Ding,
• Abstract summary: Large language models (LLMs) can support thematic analysis of unstructured clinical transcripts.<n>Existing evaluation methods vary widely, hindering progress and preventing meaningful benchmarking across studies.<n>We propose an evaluation framework centered on three dimensions: validity, reliability, and interpretability.
• Score: 5.398283020969301
• License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
• Abstract: This position paper examines how large language models (LLMs) can support thematic analysis of unstructured clinical transcripts, a widely used but resource-intensive method for uncovering patterns in patient and provider narratives. We conducted a systematic review of recent studies applying LLMs to thematic analysis, complemented by an interview with a practicing clinician. Our findings reveal that current approaches remain fragmented across multiple dimensions including types of thematic analysis, datasets, prompting strategies and models used, most notably in evaluation. Existing evaluation methods vary widely (from qualitative expert review to automatic similarity metrics), hindering progress and preventing meaningful benchmarking across studies. We argue that establishing standardized evaluation practices is critical for advancing the field. To this end, we propose an evaluation framework centered on three dimensions: validity, reliability, and interpretability.

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