Charting the Future of Medical Writing in the Age of Generative AI

The Generative AI Revolution in Healthcare and Pharma

Unless you freshly returned to civilization after being stranded on a deserted island or just woke up from a months-long nap (hello, Rip Van Winkle!), chances are you are familiar with the hype surrounding ChatGPT and probably have taken it for a spin to see for yourself what the fuss is all about.

While giant strides have been made in the use of AI in various other fields over the past few years, none of it has come close to capturing the public imagination the way conversational AI has been able to, thanks to ChatGPT, an AI chatbot that can generate natural, human-like responses based on prompts you type into a chat window.

The underlying AI algorithm powering ChatGPT is called generative AI. Generative AI refers to a class of AI algorithms that are designed to generate new and original content, such as images, music, or text. Unlike traditional AI algorithms designed to perform very specific tasks, such as classifying images or predicting stock prices, generative AI algorithms are designed to be more open-ended, allowing them to generate a wide range of possible outputs.

It has been truly fascinating to follow the conversation around ChatGPT to see how it is being perceived, not the least because it took generative AI from ‘well-known in some circles, but still somewhat niche’ to a full-blown mainstream phenomenon nearly overnight. We have a tendency to view new technologies with both fascination and fear, as is human nature – generative AI such as ChatGPT is no exception. While some see it as the key to a more efficient and innovative future, others worry that the rapid evolution of AI poses serious threats and they will make us ultimately obsolete.

As someone excited about the potential of AI to transform our lives and unlock new possibilities for creativity and innovation, I have been following the progress of generative AI over the past few years with a lot of enthusiasm. Since I make a living from medical communications and strategy, I have been particularly interested in identifying the AI-based trends in this space and recognizing how generative AI can impact pharma, healthcare, and medical communications. 

Experts predict that generative AI will become an integral part of the workflow in many knowledge-based professions, as it continues to evolve and improve rapidly. In fact, several fields, such as pharmaceutical and healthcare industries, are already embracing it and integrating the technology for custom use cases, ranging from accelerating drug discovery with supercomputers, to improving electronic health records and physician-patient communications through the use of natural language processing. From drug discovery to patient care, generative AI is expected to improve efficiency, accuracy, and outcomes in the healthcare industry. For instance, AI algorithms are being explored to identify potential drug candidates, recruit appropriate patients for clinical trials, predict patient outcomes, and personalize treatment plans.

As we stand on the brink of this AI revolution, it’s crucial to look ahead and anticipate the trends that will impact the future of medical writing. In this article, I wanted to explore the potential of generative AI as a transformative force in our field. I will delve into how it can enhance our strategies for communicating complex information, how it might reshape our workflows, and how we can prepare for this change and use this technology responsibly.

Harnessing the Power of Generative AI in Medical Knowledge Synthesis and Storytelling

Generative AI will enhance the process of knowledge gathering, analyzing, and synthesizing medical information.

As a scientist and medical communicator, I have spent countless hours poring over research papers, painstakingly analyzing data, and striving to communicate complex medical information in a way that is both accurate and engaging – I’m sure many of us can relate. It’s a challenging task, but one that is crucial in our quest to improve health outcomes and advance medical knowledge.

Now, imagine a world where AI can shoulder some of this burden, enhancing your efficiency, and freeing you up to focus on the more nuanced and strategic aspects of your work. This will soon become a reality, rather than just being a far-fetched aspiration.

For instance, think of your current process for conducting a literature search – whether its learning about a disease state and the current treatment landscape, or digging into the unique mechanism of action for a new drug. A generative AI application trained to search scholarly articles could quickly scan thousands of research papers, identifying the most relevant ones for your review. This not only saves time but also ensures that crucial pieces of information are not overlooked. Further, AI can help identify patterns and trends in large datasets that might be missed by the human eye, leading to new insights and discoveries, thereby enhancing the quality and impact of medical communications.

The potential of generative AI extends beyond textual material and into the realm of visual content. Image- and video-based generative AI technologies are opening up new possibilities for creating engaging and informative content. For instance, generative AI tools like DALL-E and Midjourney can generate images from text descriptions, and other platforms exist that can similarly create video content. As this technology evolves, these applications or similar powerful tools will enable us to create and finetune custom illustrations for medical journal articles, dynamic MOA animations for physician education materials, or visually engaging patient brochures by providing them straightforward instructions. This will reduce the human effort needed and result in saving time and money.

Generative AI will supercharge human storytelling capabilities.

As medical writers, we understand that healthcare communication goes beyond conveying facts or creating cool infographics. It is about telling engaging stories, evoking emotions, and connecting with our audience on a personal level. These stories can help make complex medical information more relatable and understandable, ultimately leading to better health outcomes. 

Thanks to the ability to process vast amounts of data to identify patterns and generate new content quickly, AI can considerably enhance our own storytelling abilities. For instance, by analyzing data on audience preferences and behaviors, AI can help us understand what types of stories resonate with different groups, allowing us to tailor our messages to different audiences and create more targeted and effective communications. AI could also be used to help create patient stories that highlight the human impact of medical conditions and treatments, helping to foster empathy and understanding.

Another promising area for applications like ChatGPT is ideation. Generative AI tools can be used to generate a wide range of ideas, helping medical writers to brainstorm and come up with innovative ways to communicate complex medical information. It can iterate with us to help create narratives that are not only informative but also engaging and emotionally resonant. For instance, AI could generate a list of potential metaphors or analogies to explain a difficult concept, or suggest different narrative structures for a patient story.

While empathy and human connection will remain key to storytelling, by combining the power of AI with the expertise and perspectives of medical writers, we can create stories that inform, engage, and inspire.

Medical writers will need to develop new skills in working with generative AI-integrated systems.

As we navigate this new landscape, understanding how to work with generative AI-integrated systems will be crucial. This doesn’t necessarily mean becoming a computer scientist, but rather gaining a working knowledge of how these systems function, how to use them effectively, how to interpret their outputs, and when to exercise caution in doing so.

At an organizational level, healthcare organizations, patient advocacy groups, pharmaceutical companies, and medical communications agencies need to ensure that individuals involved in patient care and communicating healthcare information are equipped with the knowledge, tools, and resources necessary to successfully integrate AI into their work. This means investing in education, training, and support to help them better understand this technology and apply it effectively in their jobs.

In addition, organizations will need to build multidisciplinary teams that can keep up with key developments in generative AI and understand their implications. These teams will be instrumental in recommending and implementing new strategies, ensuring that the organization stays at the forefront of this rapidly evolving field.

From an individual perspective, the integration of AI into medical communications will underscore the importance of cross-functional collaboration. Medical communications professionals already work with a diverse array of stakeholders, and this will only increase as AI becomes more integrated into our work. The ability to collaborate effectively across different skillsets and backgrounds will continue to be a key skill.

Mitigating Risks in the Age of Generative AI

Ensuring accuracy of medical information will become harder and require expert human oversight of AI-generated or AI-influenced content.

While the potential benefits of AI in medical writing are immense, we must also be mindful of the risks. One of the key concerns is the potential for misinformation. AI systems are only as good as the data they are trained on, and if that data is flawed or biased, the outputs could be misleading or inaccurate.

Another significant challenge is the tendency of large language models like ChatGPT to hallucinate, or generate content that isn’t entirely grounded in facts – and what’s more, it does that with the confidence of a seasoned actor improvising a scene so well that the audience having the slightest clue it was ad-libbed. With the explosion of AI-generated content and the ease with which different iterations of it can be manufactured, this can pose a significant risk, especially in the field of healthcare and medical communications, where accuracy is paramount. Misinformation or inaccurate health information can have serious consequences for public health outcomes, and it’s crucial that we develop strategies to mitigate this risk.

While AI can generate content, it lacks the ability to critically evaluate the information it produces and doesn’t recognize the implications of misinformation in the same way a human does. This is where human oversight becomes indispensable. So,  subject matter experts and (human) writers should continue to own and review all medical communications workflows to ensure that the content we create – whether it’s educational materials geared towards physicians or patients, plain language summaries of clinical trials, academic writing for medical journals – is accurate, reliable, and beneficial.

Protecting privacy and intellectual property will be key challenges, and will impact the adoption of generative AI at scale in healthcare and medical writing

As we start to use AI systems to process personal health information, we must ensure that patient privacy is protected. This will require robust data protection measures and strong guardrails to ensure that sensitive information is handled with the utmost care.  

Medical communications professionals also often deal with sensitive proprietary data from pharmaceutical companies and healthcare organizations. As we integrate generative AI into our workflows, it’s imperative that we maintain the high standards of confidentiality and care. This means implementing stringent data security measures and ensuring that AI systems are designed and used in a way that respects and protects intellectual property and sensitive information.

Clear communication and enhanced transparency about the handling of sensitive data – whether it’s protected health information like medical records, or proprietary information like corporate strategy and product messaging – will be key to protecting sensitive data and maintaining trust.

Amplified Intelligence: The Art and Science of Communication 

The way forward for medical communications, similar to other knowledge-intensive work, will likely be a hybrid model of amplified intelligence that combines the prodigious capabilities of AI with human expertise and oversight.*

While AI excels at identifying the ‘what’ and the ‘who’, it’s the ‘why’ and ‘how’ where human expertise truly shines. Seeing things beyond the binary, understanding the deeper context beyond a set character limit, critically evaluating information, and applying compassion and ethical considerations in decision making are areas where humans excel. These are also aspects that AI, like ChatGPT, in its current form, cannot yet fully replicate.

So, while AI can be a powerful tool, integrating it into medical writing will not be necessarily about replacing human expertise, but rather about leveraging the strengths of AI – its speed and the ability to process vast amounts of data to recognize patterns – while also harnessing the capabilities of humans – our creativity, critical thinking, and emotional intelligence. By combining our skills with the capabilities of AI, we can create more engaging, accurate, and impactful medical content – and do it all a lot faster.

The evolution of this technology will create new opportunities and also redefine the roles and functions of medical and scientific writers. For instance, there will likely be a growing need for professionals who can oversee the use of AI, ensuring its ethical application and accuracy. There may also be new opportunities for those who can bridge the gap between AI and human communication, clarifying feedback or instructions from other humans into a form that the AI can recognize so it can help generate quality output (search for prompt engineering jobs and you will see what I mean) – after all, simply typing in “add some pizazz to this slide” into the ChatGPT window may not always yield the best results. 

Preparing for a Future in Flux

As generative AI revolutionizes the way we understand, interpret, and communicate information, this transformational change will also reshape the medical writing industry. The integration of AI into our work will undoubtedly bring challenges, but it also brings immense opportunities. Opportunities to improve our efficiency and accuracy, to uncover new insights, and to communicate complex medical information in more accessible and engaging ways.

It’s an exciting time to be in this space, but it’s also a period that requires a clear vision and strategic mindset. We need to embrace the possibilities that AI presents, while also being mindful of the challenges and risks.  As we navigate this new landscape, it’s crucial that we do so with a sense of responsibility and a respect for the qualities and perspectives that are uniquely human.

“The human spirit must prevail over technology.”

Albert Einstein

In the age of generative AI, the role of the medical writer will evolve. It’s an evolution that will require us to adapt, learn, and grow. As we navigate this journey, one thing to keep in mind is that the essence of medical writing – the passion for knowledge, the commitment to accuracy, and the desire to make a positive impact on patient outcomes – remains unchanged.

Ultimately, individual and organizational success will not be determined by chasing after ChatGPT or the next shiny application, but rather by how well you leverage transformative technologies and adapt innovations into your processes in a sustainable manner. 

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Aaram A. Kumar

Hi there! I’m Aaram, the founder of Sciencera. I grew up in the beautiful city of Thiruvananthapuram in the Southern part of India, famous for its pristine beaches. Now, I am a scientific writer based in Indianapolis. When I am not busy procrastinating on my writing, poring through research articles, or coming up with grand ideas to save the planet, I love playing soccer and chess. I read a bit and write sporadically when caffeinated to the right amount. I am passionate about scientific research, writing, and outreach activities.