LLMs Improve Patient Understanding of Ultrasound Reports

Condition(s) studied

Investigational drug(s) / intervention(s)

Standard ultrasound report presentation: Presentation of the completed routine ultrasound report to the participant or legal guardian

Expert-reviewed AI-simplified ultrasound report presentation: Presentation of a patient-facing plain-language ultrasound report generated by an AI workflow and reviewed by ultrasound physicians before participant or guardian exposure. The intervention did not alter ultrasound acquisition, diagnostic interpretation, treatment decisions, follow-up, or clinical management

Study summary

This multicenter, patient-blinded, controlled evaluation assessed whether expert-reviewed artificial intelligence (AI)-simplified ultrasound reports improved patient- or guardian-reported understanding and reading experience compared with standard ultrasound reports. Routine ultrasound reports were completed through existing clinical processes. After completion of the routine report, participants were assigned to view either the standard report or an expert-reviewed plain-language version generated with a large language model workflow.

The simplified report was intended only as a patient-facing communication aid. It did not replace the standard clinical report and did not alter ultrasound acquisition, diagnostic interpretation, treatment decisions, follow-up, or subsequent clinical management. Patient- or guardian-reported outcomes included cognitive workload, comprehension, report perception, and reading time. Expert review assessed whether AI-generated simplified reports preserved source meaning and identified factual errors, omissions, or unsupported additions before patient presentation.

Eligibility

Primary outcome measure(s)

• Text comprehension composite score — Immediately after reading the assigned report
  Participant- or guardian-reported text comprehension after reading the assigned ultrasound report format. The composite score was calculated as the arithmetic mean of three seven-point questionnaire items assessing clarity, readability, and comprehensibility. Higher scores indicate better comprehension.

Trial sites (1)