Artificial intelligence for tailoring complex clinical information to patients and families: A technical perspective

CONTEXT: Effective communication of complex medical information is critical for individuals with spinal cord injury (SCI) and their families, but this need remains largely unmet. Artificial intelligence (AI), including large language models (LLMs) like GPT-4o, may help simplify clinical texts while preserving essential medical information. However, their ability to adapt content across ages, education levels, and languages without compromising accuracy has not been systematically evaluated. FINDINGS: one simplified version was "Plain English" by FKGL but "Fairly Difficult" by FH, highlighting language-specific behavior. CONCLUSION/CLINICAL RELEVANCE: GPT-4o can tailor complex SCI clinical excerpts to specific audiences in English and Spanish, but child-directed versions may lose clinically relevant information. Clinician oversight remains essential for safe patient communication.