The Impact of AI on Medical Writing: How Artificial Intelligence is Revolutionizing Medical Content Creation

The era of artificial intelligence (AI) has changed the landscape of biomedical research and communications. AI has revolutionized how medical content is created, curated, and disseminated. This transformation has expedited the medical writing process, thereby enhancing the quality, accuracy, and accessibility of medical information, benefiting both healthcare professionals and patients.

Advantages of AI-powered Medical Writing

Traditional medical writing involves researching, drafting, and reviewing content, often consuming considerable time and resources. The medical writing process has been streamlined with the advent of AI technologies such as natural language processing (NLP), machine learning, and deep learning algorithms.¹ AI algorithms can sift through vast medical literature, extracting relevant information and generating summaries or even full-fledged manuscripts.² Further, the ability of AI algorithms to analyze extensive data and identify patterns and trends can be used to inform the content of editorials, providing readers with a more accurate and up-to-date picture of the state of the field.³

The impact of AI on medical writing is profound and multifaceted. AI-powered tools such as grammar and style checking, plagiarism detection, and reference management have been embraced by a significant number of global medical writers. AI algorithms can identify potential plagiarism by comparing newly generated content against a vast database of existing publications, thereby providing more comprehensive and reliable results.⁴ AI tools are also used in automated summarization, data analysis and interpretations, semantic search, literature review, translation and localization, and automated report generation. Some of the popular AI-powered tools in medical communications include large language models (GPT), chatbots (ChatGPT), image creators, and automated literature reviews (IBM Watson Discovery, Dimensions AI).² Additionally, AI has also modernized the peer review process, a cornerstone process in medical communications. The usual peer review process relies on human expertise to evaluate the quality and validity of different deliverables, which is time-consuming and often involves potentially biased endeavors. On the other hand, AI tools can improve the peer review process by augmenting human reviewers with algorithms that can quickly and accurately analyze large amounts of data. Currently, AI tools used for the screening of papers, flagging potential issues related to ethics, integrity, or quality, checking plagiarism and conflicts of interest, detecting statistical errors, and assessing the novelty of research findings can aid in the peer review process. Some of the commonly used AI-driven tools in peer review include Statcheck (assessing the consistency of statistics reporting, focusing on p-values), Penelope.ai (examining the references and the structure of a manuscript meeting a journal’s requirements), UNSILO (summarizing manuscript content), Automated Essay Scoring (AES) among others.

Comparative Analysis of AI-assisted Peer Review vs Traditional Review

Human abilities such as clinical experience, subject expertise, and contextual understanding are often considered more authentic than AI in medical writing and reviewing. The direct clinical experience or deep subject knowledge allows medical writers to understand the nuances of medical concepts, research findings, and patient experiences in a way that AI may struggle to replicate. Further, medical writers can grasp the broader context surrounding medical topics, including social, cultural, and ethical considerations. This contextual understanding enables them to provide more comprehensive insights in their writing, while this remains a challenge with AI. Also, medical writers can infuse empathy and sensitivity into their writing and adapt their writing style and tone based on the target audience. They can anticipate the emotional impact of their words and tailor their communication accordingly, which may be challenging for AI to achieve convincingly. They can also reframe complex medical information to make it more accessible and engaging; a skill AI-generated content may lack. Numerous studies have highlighted the proficiency of AI in medical research and scientific writing with some limitations. The experiment by Wattanapisit et al. testing ChatGPT’s ability to generate a scholarly manuscript introduction and subsequent expansion with references yielded satisfactory results. However, the references provided by the AI chatbot were non-existent, highlighting the unreliability of relying solely on ChatGPT as a medical writer.⁵ AI cannot entirely replace human judgment in medical writing and peer review, but it can augment reviewers’ capabilities, making the process more efficient and transparent.⁶

Challenges of adopting AI in medical communications

Even though AI is transformative in medical communications, it has also given rise to ethical and regulatory challenges. Some of the concerns raised among medical communication professionals include ensuring the privacy and security of patient data used to train AI models and the risk of algorithmic bias and discrimination. The dependency on training data for AI tools may limit its capability in domain-specific knowledge, which may affect data collection and analysis. Further, maintaining transparency and accountability is essential to foster trust among healthcare professionals and patients. Additionally, ethical concerns about authorship and accountability for AI-generated content are major concerns with medical publications, and editing by professional medical writers or editors is warranted.

Currently, there are no specific laws or guidelines addressing the use of AI in medical literature. Hence, various legal issues must be considered, including data confidentiality, copyright infringement, data accuracy (regarding numbers, clinical and radiologic interpretations), and accountability of AI-generated content.

AI-generated content is based on predetermined data and lacks a medical writer’s original thought and creativity. While using AI to expedite the writing process is helpful, medical writers will have to check the accuracy of the text.⁷

Due to ethical and legal concerns, only a limited number of articles have been written by AI. Biswas’s article, written using mostly AI-assisted ChatGPT, explains a breakthrough in AI text generation and is a self-reference. AI has developed content for almost all article sections except for the introduction, cautions, and edits. Even though AI can generate content, final human judgement is required in medical writing.⁸

Conclusion

Overall, AI is revolutionizing medical writing by streamlining processes, improving accuracy, and enhancing the accessibility and availability of medical information. AI’s impact has profoundly provided faster and more accurate medical information, improving healthcare outcomes for individuals and communities worldwide. However, addressing the ethical and regulatory challenges is crucial in harnessing AI’s full potential in the medical communication domain. Therefore, medical writers must critically evaluate AI-generated content and ensure it meets rigorous clinical validity and ethical integrity standards. Addressing challenges with technological advancements, ethical considerations, and regulatory guidelines is important for unlocking the full potential of AI-related tools in revolutionizing medical communications and ensuring fairness in access and outcomes.

References:

1. Doyal AS et al. ChatGPT and Artificial Intelligence in Medical Writing: Concerns and Ethical Considerations. 2023;15(8): e43292.
2. Hajji R. Artificial Intelligence-Assisted Technology in Medical Manuscript Writing: New Challenges For Reviewers and Editors. Telehealth and Medicine Today.2024
3. Verhoeven F et al. ChatGPT: when artificial intelligence replaces rheumatologists in medical writing. Ann Rheum Dis. 2023;82(8):1015-1017
4. Mishra S. Enhancing Plagiarism Detection: The Role of Artificial Intelligence in Upholding Academic Integrity. Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal).2023: 78092023
5. Wattanapisit A et al. Should ChatGPT be Considered a Medical Writer? Malays Fam Physician.2023;18:69
6. Carobene A et al. Rising adoption of artificial intelligence in scientific publishing: evaluating the role, risks, and ethical implications in paper drafting and review process. Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine. 2024; 62(5):835-843.
7. Kitamura FC. ChatGPT Is Shaping the Future of Medical Writing but Still Requires Human Judgment. Radiology2023307:2
8. Som Biswas. ChatGPT and the future of Medical Writing. Radiology 2023 307:2

Authors:

Dhanya Mukundan
Expert Scientific Writer, Enago Life Sciences
Connect with Dhanya on LinkedIn

Raghuraj Puthige, PhD.
Function Head, Medical Communications – Enago Life Sciences
Connect with Raghuraj on LinkedIn

Dr. Anupama Kapadia
General Manager, Enago Life Sciences
Connect with Anupama on LinkedIn