Using artificial intelligence to expedite and enhance plain language summary abstract writing of scientific content

To assess the capacity of a bespoke artificial intelligence (AI) process to help medical writers efficiently generate quality plain language summary abstracts (PLSAs).

Three independent studies were conducted. In Studies 1 and 3, original scientific abstracts (OSAs; n = 48, n = 2) and corresponding PLSAs written by medical writers versus bespoke AI were assessed using standard readability metrics. Study 2 compared time and effort of medical writers (n = 10) drafting PLSAs starting with an OSA (n = 6) versus the output of 1 bespoke AI (n = 6) and 1 non-bespoke AI (n = 6) process. These PLSAs (n = 72) were assessed by subject matter experts (SMEs; n = 3) for accuracy and physicians (n = 7) for patient suitability. Lastly, in Study 3, medical writers (n = 22) and patients/patient advocates (n = 5) compared quality of medical writer and bespoke AI-generated PLSAs.

In Study 1, bespoke AI PLSAs were easier to read than medical writer PLSAs across all readability metrics (P <.01). In Study 2, bespoke AI output saved medical writers >40% in time for PLSA creation and required less effort than unassisted writing. SME-assessed quality was higher for AI-assisted PLSAs, and physicians preferred bespoke AI-generated outputs for patient use. In Study 3, bespoke AI PLSAs were more readable and rated of higher quality than medical writer PLSAs.

The bespoke AI process may enhance access to health information by helping medical writers produce PLSAs of scientific content that are fit for purpose.

The bespoke AI process can more efficiently create better quality, more readable first draft PLSAs versus medical writer-generated PLSAs.