Open-Source Large Language Models in Radiology

As interest in large language models (LLMs) for medical imaging continues to grow, I took a closer look at the practical aspects of using open-source LLMs in radiology. The review by Savage et al. (2025) in Radiology encourages the exploration of open-source large language models over proprietary ones in both research and potential clinical applications. Open-source LLMs can offer advantages such as flexibility, lower costs, and opportunities for innovation, while proprietary LLMs often provide stronger performance and safety testing. The paper provides a guideline to get familiar with implementation and explains, from the ground up, several techniques to improve performance.