arxivcs.LGcs.AI2026-07-01
How Should Transformers Encode Numeric Values in Electronic Health Records?
Maria Elkjær Montgomery, Christian Igel, Mikkel Odgaard, Martin Sillesen, Mads Nielsen
How do we encode numeric values in transformer-based sequence processing, particularly in electronic health record (EHR) data? We systematically compare discrete, continuous, and hybrid value encoding strategies using synthetic arithmetic tasks embedded within real-world EHR data…