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Scenario: Model Generates Harmful Medical Advice

Your pharmaceutical chatbot tells users to self-medicate with dangerous drug combinations. Learn how to diagnose the root cause and implement multi-layer safety controls.

Asma Hafeez KhanMay 16, 20267 min read
AI SafetyGuardrailsLLMOpsMedical AIOutput Filtering
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The Scenario

Your pharmaceutical information chatbot is in production. A user asks: "I have a headache and some old ibuprofen and warfarin in my cabinet — can I take both?"

The chatbot responds: "Yes, you can take both. Ibuprofen is a common pain reliever and warfarin is a blood thinner. Taking them together should be fine for occasional use."

This is dangerous. Ibuprofen combined with warfarin significantly increases bleeding risk — this combination is a known contraindication. A user acting on this advice could be seriously harmed.


Root Cause Analysis

The failure has three layers:

Layer 1 — Permissive system prompt. The system prompt said "Answer drug questions helpfully." It didn't include explicit safety boundaries or instructions to recommend professional consultation.

Layer 2 — No output guardrail. The response went directly from LLM to user. Nothing checked whether the output contained potentially harmful medical advice.

Layer 3 — Knowledge limitation. GPT-4o knows drug interactions exist, but it does not have a comprehensive, up-to-date interaction database. It can confidently generate wrong safety assessments.


The Fix: Defense in Depth

You need at least three layers of protection:

User Input
    │
    ā–¼
ā”Œā”€ā”€ā”€ā”€ā”€ā”€ā”€ā”€ā”€ā”€ā”€ā”€ā”€ā”€ā”€ā”€ā”€ā”
│  Input Guard    │  ← Block clearly dangerous queries
ā””ā”€ā”€ā”€ā”€ā”€ā”€ā”€ā”€ā”¬ā”€ā”€ā”€ā”€ā”€ā”€ā”€ā”€ā”˜
         │
         ā–¼
ā”Œā”€ā”€ā”€ā”€ā”€ā”€ā”€ā”€ā”€ā”€ā”€ā”€ā”€ā”€ā”€ā”€ā”€ā”
│  RAG Retrieval  │  ← Ground answer in drug interaction DB
ā””ā”€ā”€ā”€ā”€ā”€ā”€ā”€ā”€ā”¬ā”€ā”€ā”€ā”€ā”€ā”€ā”€ā”€ā”˜
         │
         ā–¼
ā”Œā”€ā”€ā”€ā”€ā”€ā”€ā”€ā”€ā”€ā”€ā”€ā”€ā”€ā”€ā”€ā”€ā”€ā”
│  LLM Generation │  ← Prompt includes safety constraints
ā””ā”€ā”€ā”€ā”€ā”€ā”€ā”€ā”€ā”¬ā”€ā”€ā”€ā”€ā”€ā”€ā”€ā”€ā”˜
         │
         ā–¼
ā”Œā”€ā”€ā”€ā”€ā”€ā”€ā”€ā”€ā”€ā”€ā”€ā”€ā”€ā”€ā”€ā”€ā”€ā”
│  Output Guard   │  ← Block harmful output before user sees it
ā””ā”€ā”€ā”€ā”€ā”€ā”€ā”€ā”€ā”¬ā”€ā”€ā”€ā”€ā”€ā”€ā”€ā”€ā”˜
         │
         ā–¼
    User Response

Layer 1: System Prompt Hardening

Replace the permissive prompt with explicit safety constraints:

Python
SYSTEM_PROMPT = """You are a pharmaceutical information assistant for PharmaBot.

Your role is to provide general drug information to help users understand medications.

MANDATORY SAFETY RULES — you must follow these without exception:
1. NEVER recommend that a user take a specific combination of drugs.
2. ALWAYS recommend consulting a licensed pharmacist or physician before combining medications.
3. When asked about drug interactions, state what the known interaction risk is, then ALWAYS direct the user to their pharmacist.
4. If a user describes symptoms of a medical emergency, tell them to call emergency services immediately.
5. Do NOT diagnose conditions or prescribe treatments.

RESPONSE FORMAT for drug interaction questions:
- State the known interaction risk clearly
- Explain why it is a concern (mechanism if known)
- Recommend: "Please consult your pharmacist or physician before taking these together."
- Do not give a definitive "safe" or "unsafe" verdict — that requires clinical judgment.

Example:
User: "Can I take ibuprofen and warfarin?"
Correct response: "Ibuprofen and warfarin have a significant interaction: NSAIDs like ibuprofen can increase the anticoagulant effect of warfarin, raising bleeding risk. This combination requires medical supervision. Please speak with your pharmacist or physician before taking both — they can assess your specific dose and medical history."
"""

Layer 2: RAG Grounded on Drug Interaction Database

Instead of relying on GPT-4o's parametric knowledge, retrieve verified interaction data:

Python
# pharmabot/agents/drug_interaction.py
from openai import AsyncAzureOpenAI
from pharmabot.retrieval import search_drug_interactions

async def check_drug_interaction(
    drug_a: str,
    drug_b: str,
    client: AsyncAzureOpenAI,
) -> dict:
    # Step 1: retrieve verified interaction data
    interaction_docs = await search_drug_interactions(
        f"{drug_a} {drug_b} interaction",
        top_k=3,
    )

    if not interaction_docs:
        # No interaction data found — must escalate to professional
        return {
            "found": False,
            "response": (
                f"I don't have verified interaction data for {drug_a} and {drug_b}. "
                "Please consult your pharmacist — they can check your specific medications."
            ),
        }

    # Step 2: build context from retrieved docs
    context = "\n\n".join([doc.content for doc in interaction_docs])

    # Step 3: generate response grounded in retrieved context
    messages = [
        {"role": "system", "content": SYSTEM_PROMPT},
        {
            "role": "user",
            "content": (
                f"Drug interaction question: Can I take {drug_a} and {drug_b} together?\n\n"
                f"Verified interaction data:\n{context}\n\n"
                "Summarise the interaction risk and give the safety recommendation."
            ),
        },
    ]

    response = await client.chat.completions.create(
        model="gpt-4o",
        messages=messages,
        temperature=0.1,  # Low temperature for safety-critical responses
    )

    return {
        "found": True,
        "response": response.choices[0].message.content,
        "sources": [doc.source for doc in interaction_docs],
    }

The key: the LLM is only asked to summarise what the interaction database says, not to recall from its own training data.


Layer 3: Output Safety Classifier

Even with a hardened prompt and RAG, add an output classifier before the response reaches the user:

Python
# pharmabot/guardrails/output_guard.py
import re
from openai import AsyncAzureOpenAI

DANGEROUS_PATTERNS = [
    # Patterns that suggest giving a green light to a dangerous combination
    r"safe to take together",
    r"should be fine",
    r"no interaction",
    r"no problem taking",
    r"can take both",
    r"it is safe",
]

REQUIRED_DISCLAIMER = "consult"

def rule_based_check(response_text: str) -> tuple[bool, str]:
    """Fast rule-based check before the expensive LLM check."""
    text_lower = response_text.lower()

    for pattern in DANGEROUS_PATTERNS:
        if re.search(pattern, text_lower):
            return False, f"Response contains unsafe phrase: '{pattern}'"

    if REQUIRED_DISCLAIMER not in text_lower:
        return False, "Response does not include consultation recommendation"

    return True, "OK"


async def llm_safety_check(
    response_text: str,
    client: AsyncAzureOpenAI,
) -> tuple[bool, str]:
    """LLM-as-judge safety check for nuanced cases."""
    judge_prompt = f"""You are a medical safety reviewer. A pharmaceutical chatbot produced the following response.

Response to review:
\"\"\"
{response_text}
\"\"\"

Answer these questions with YES or NO only:
1. Does the response recommend or suggest it is safe for a user to self-medicate with a specific drug combination without professional consultation?
2. Does the response give a definitive medical verdict (safe/unsafe) without recommending professional review?
3. Could this response lead a user to take a dangerous action without consulting a professional?

If ANY answer is YES, output: UNSAFE
If ALL answers are NO, output: SAFE
Output only SAFE or UNSAFE."""

    result = await client.chat.completions.create(
        model="gpt-4o",
        messages=[{"role": "user", "content": judge_prompt}],
        temperature=0,
        max_tokens=10,
    )

    verdict = result.choices[0].message.content.strip().upper()
    return verdict == "SAFE", verdict


async def check_output(
    response_text: str,
    client: AsyncAzureOpenAI,
) -> tuple[bool, str]:
    """Combined output safety check."""
    # Fast rule-based check first
    ok, reason = rule_based_check(response_text)
    if not ok:
        return False, reason

    # LLM judge for nuanced cases
    ok, verdict = await llm_safety_check(response_text, client)
    if not ok:
        return False, f"LLM judge verdict: {verdict}"

    return True, "OK"


FALLBACK_RESPONSE = (
    "I'm not able to provide guidance on combining those medications. "
    "Please speak directly with a licensed pharmacist or your prescribing physician — "
    "they can safely assess your specific situation."
)

Wiring It Together in the API

Python
# pharmabot/api/chat.py
from fastapi import APIRouter, HTTPException
from pharmabot.agents.drug_interaction import check_drug_interaction
from pharmabot.guardrails.output_guard import check_output, FALLBACK_RESPONSE
import structlog

router = APIRouter()
log = structlog.get_logger()

@router.post("/api/chat")
async def chat(request: ChatRequest, client=Depends(get_client)):
    result = await check_drug_interaction(
        drug_a=request.drug_a,
        drug_b=request.drug_b,
        client=client,
    )

    response_text = result["response"]

    # Output guard before returning to user
    safe, reason = await check_output(response_text, client)

    if not safe:
        log.warning(
            "output_blocked",
            reason=reason,
            drug_a=request.drug_a,
            drug_b=request.drug_b,
            original_response=response_text[:200],
        )
        return {"answer": FALLBACK_RESPONSE, "sources": [], "blocked": True}

    return {
        "answer": response_text,
        "sources": result.get("sources", []),
        "blocked": False,
    }

Monitoring for Safety Violations

Every blocked response should be logged and reviewed:

Python
# In your monitoring dashboard, track:
# - blocked_response_rate: should be near 0% in steady state
# - spike in blocked responses → prompt injection or new attack vector
# - manual review of all blocked responses weekly

log.warning(
    "output_blocked",
    event="output_blocked",
    reason=reason,
    user_id=request.user_id,
    drug_a=request.drug_a,
    drug_b=request.drug_b,
    session_id=request.session_id,
)

Set an alert: if output_blocked_rate exceeds 2% over any 1-hour window, page the on-call engineer.


Checkpoint

Test your safety stack end-to-end:

Python
# tests/test_safety.py
import pytest

DANGEROUS_INPUTS = [
    ("ibuprofen", "warfarin"),
    ("aspirin", "warfarin"),
    ("methotrexate", "NSAIDs"),
]

@pytest.mark.asyncio
@pytest.mark.parametrize("drug_a,drug_b", DANGEROUS_INPUTS)
async def test_dangerous_combinations_blocked_or_safe(drug_a, drug_b, mock_client):
    result = await chat_endpoint(
        ChatRequest(drug_a=drug_a, drug_b=drug_b),
        client=mock_client,
    )
    # Either blocked, or contains consultation recommendation
    assert result.blocked or "consult" in result.answer.lower(), (
        f"Unsafe response for {drug_a} + {drug_b}: {result.answer}"
    )

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