Natural language processing in plastic surgery patient consultations

Natural language processing (NLP) is the study of systems that allow machines to understand, interpret, and generate human language. With the advent of large language models (LLMs), non-technical industries can also harness the power of NLP. This includes healthcare, specifically surgical care and plastic surgery. This manuscript is an introductory review for plastic surgeons to understand the current state and future potential of NLP in patient consultations. The integration of NLP into plastic surgery patient consultations can transform both documentation and communication. These applications include information extraction, patient chart summarization, ambient transcription, coding, enhancing patient understanding, translation, and a patient-facing chatbot. We discuss the current progress toward building these applications and highlight their challenges. NLP has the potential to personalize care, enhance patient satisfaction, and improve workflows for plastic surgeons. Altogether, NLP can radically transform our current model of consultation into one that is more patient-centered.