From Cloud to Pocket: Frontier Edge Foundation Models and the Future of Clinical Informatics.

IF 2.7 2区医学 Q4 MEDICAL INFORMATICS

Applied Clinical Informatics Pub Date : 2026-08-01 Epub Date: 2026-09-29 DOI:10.1055/a-2969-1166

Ravi Shankar

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引用次数: 0

Abstract

Abstract: BACKGROUND: Open foundation models designed for on-device and edge deployment, exemplified by the Qwen 3.5 small series (March 2, 2026) and Gemma 4 (April 2, 2026), challenge the default of routing all clinical natural language processing through commercial cloud application programming interfaces (APIs).

Abstract: OBJECTIVES: This study aimed to examine the implications of these models for clinical informatics, for clinical informaticians, healthcare chief information officers, governance committees and NLP researchers.

Abstract: METHODS: Narrative (non-systematic) perspective. We summarized the technical advances of both releases and situated them within the 2024 to 2026 peer-reviewed evidence on locally deployed clinical large language models. We searched PubMed, Scopus and Google Scholar (January 2024 to June 2026) and added citation tracking.

Abstract: RESULTS: Both releases narrow the gap between local and frontier cloud capability for structured extraction and template-based documentation. The existing evidence comes from 3 to 70 billion parameter models on institutional servers. Clinical benchmarks at 0.8 to 4 billion parameters are absent. Hallucination, quantization, endpoint security, liability and unvalidated multimodal and multilingual claims remain open concerns. Frontier cloud models retain clear advantages for complex clinical reasoning.

Abstract: CONCLUSION: For a defined subset of tasks, cloud-by-default may no longer be the most defensible choice. The field needs reporting standards, governance and liability frameworks, task-appropriate routing, and edge-aware benchmarks.

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从云到口袋：前沿基础模型和临床信息学的未来。

目的：以Qwen 3.5小系列（2026年3月2日）和Gemma 4（2026年4月2日）为例，研究为设备上和边缘部署设计的开放式基础模型的弯曲对临床信息学的影响。目标受众：临床信息学家、医疗保健首席信息官、医院治理委员会和自然语言处理研究人员。范围：我们总结了这些版本的技术进步，将它们置于2024年至2026年本地部署的临床大型语言模型上的同行评审证据中，并讨论了隐私、延迟、多模式护理点应用、公平性和验证的后果。我们认为，对于临床任务的特定子集，特别是结构化数据提取和基于模板的文档，通过商业云应用程序编程接口路由所有临床自然语言处理的默认选择可能不再是最可靠的选择，同时承认前沿云模型在复杂的临床推理中保留了明显的优势。该领域需要报告标准、治理和责任框架、适合任务的路由机制，以及针对边缘部署量身定制的基准。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Applied Clinical Informatics MEDICAL INFORMATICS-

CiteScore

4.60

自引率

24.10%

发文量

132

期刊介绍： ACI is the third Schattauer journal dealing with biomedical and health informatics. It perfectly complements our other journals Öffnet internen Link im aktuellen FensterMethods of Information in Medicine and the Öffnet internen Link im aktuellen FensterYearbook of Medical Informatics. The Yearbook of Medical Informatics being the “Milestone” or state-of-the-art journal and Methods of Information in Medicine being the “Science and Research” journal of IMIA, ACI intends to be the “Practical” journal of IMIA.