How can artificial intelligence (AI) enhance patient healthcare, specifically involving online patient education materials (PEMs)? This is what a recent study accepted to the Journal of Medical Internet Research hopes to address as a team of researchers investigated the reading levels for PEMs, as they are required to be written at a sixth grade reading level or below. This study has the potential to help scientists, medical professionals, and the public better understand how technology can be used to improve patient empowerment regarding their own healthcare.
For the study, the researchers used a series of large language models (LLMs) to analyze 60 random PEMs obtained from three separate websites: American Heart Association (AHA), American Cancer Society (ACS), and American Stroke Association (ASA). The goal of the analysis was to identify the reading levels of the PEMs and reduce them to a sixth grade reading level, if necessary. In the end, the researchers found that the original text of the PEMs across all three websites were above a sixth grade reading level and the team used the LLMs to reduce the reading level, which also resulted in a drastic decrease in word count.
"Our study shows that widely used large language models have the potential to transform patient education materials into more readable content, which is essential for patient empowerment and better health outcomes," said Dr. Jonah Feldman, MD, who is the medical director of transformation and informatics at NYU Langone and a co-author on the study.
While online PEMs have been available for decades, they have advanced from simple text and images to electronic health records, telehealth appointments, and interactive videos. In a time when patients are becoming increasingly aware of their healthcare, PEMs at appropriate reading levels will ensure patients stay empowered regarding their healthcare.
How will AI improve PEMs in the coming years and decades? Only time will tell, and this is why we science!
As always, keep doing science & keep looking up!
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