Assessing ChatGPT-4o's Image Generation for Educational Infographics in Plastic Surgery: A Pilot Study

Area of Science:

• Medical Illustration
• Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare
• Plastic Surgery Education

Background:

• Generative AI, specifically ChatGPT-4o, offers advanced language and image generation for patient education.
• Visually intensive fields like plastic surgery can benefit from AI-powered content creation.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate ChatGPT-4o's efficacy in generating educational infographics for common plastic surgery procedures.
• To assess the quality of AI-generated infographics based on expert surgeon evaluations.

Main Methods:

• Pilot study using ChatGPT-4o to create infographics for rhinoplasty, blepharoplasty, abdominoplasty, facelift, and liposuction.
• Expert plastic surgeons (N=4) rated infographics on visual appeal, clarity, accuracy, educational value, and suitability.
• Descriptive statistics and one-sample t tests analyzed evaluation scores.

Main Results:

• All infographics achieved mean Likert scores above 4.0 across all evaluated domains.
• Visual appeal received the highest rating (mean 4.72 ± 0.08).
• Anatomical accuracy was rated lower (mean 4.32 ± 0.08) but still significantly above the benchmark (p < 0.001).

Conclusions:

• ChatGPT-4o shows significant potential for creating visually engaging and educationally sound plastic surgery infographics.
• Further development is needed to enhance anatomical precision in AI-generated visuals.
• AI-generated visual tools can improve patient communication, engagement, and informed consent in clinical practice.