Inizio Medical has illustrated the transformational role of AI in medical communications and the need for its urgent adoption across the sector in two recently published statements with top industry bodies, the Healthcare Communications Association (HCA) and the International Society for Medical Publication Professionals (ISMPP).

Inizio Medical’s Global Chief Artificial and Augmented Intelligence Officer, Matt Lewis, was a primary contributor to the development of both statements, which make an urgent call to businesses across the sector to integrate artificial intelligence (AI) into all aspects of their communication or risk being left behind. They also offer expert guidance on how communication professionals can lead by example by harnessing the power of AI responsibly and ethically.

The HCA’s AI roadmap hails generative AI as “one of the defining innovations of our professional lives” and provides a detailed prospectus for the adoption of AI across healthcare communications. It aims to facilitate a greater understanding of how AI will revolutionize the sector.

The statement advocates that businesses should adopt clear policies to ensure their use of AI is ethical and appropriate, as part of embedding the new technology into their business. This should be based on the following set of core principles:

• Compliance, legal, & regulatory concerns: All users of generative AI must comply with applicable laws, regulations, and ethical guidelines.
• Privacy & confidentiality: Organisations should recognize that the improper use of AI tools could pose a risk to operations and customers.
• Inclusivity & respect: Data should promote equity and equality, respecting the diversity of society, and not reinforcing existing biases.
• Transparency: All organizations should seek to explain in clear and simple ways how their use of AI impacts employees, partners, and customers.
• Accountability: Users should be responsible for ensuring that the content produced using generative AI aligns with the organization’s values, ethics, and quality standards.
• Monitoring & flexibility: In such a rapidly changing space, AI policy should only be set with regular review and careful assessment of impact, technological shifts, and changing industry standards.

In addition to this, the” ISMPP Position Statement and Call to Action on Artificial Intelligence” issues a bold call to action for ISMPP members to lead by example by harnessing the power of AI responsibly. This reflects the rapidly evolving nature of medical communications as a profession and the revolutionary role the adoption of AI has played and will continue to play in the industry.

• Education and Training: Stay up to date with AI advancements. Recognize that AI is revolutionizing scientific communication. All ISMPP members are encouraged to improve their AI literacy, understand its potential and associated risks, and engage with ISMPP AI education and training.
• Implementation and Use: Ensure that AI is integrated responsibly, transparently, and fairly, always prioritizing confidentiality. Align the usage of AI with ISMPP’s Code of Ethics to foster patient accessibility, ensure timely publication and combat publication bias.
• Advocacy and Community Engagement: Engage within and beyond your organizations. Given ISMPP members' unique positions on bridging medical science, healthcare professionals, and patients, it’s crucial to actively participate in AI policy formation due to its broader societal impacts.

The overarching aim of the statement is to illuminate the value and transformational effect AI is set to have on the industry, as well as provide a series of guiding principles for its safe, ethical, and productive use.

Commenting on the future use of AI in healthcare and medical communications, Matt Lewis said: “This is a critical time in the evolution of both the communications field as well as in medical affairs more broadly. Both fields are at a juncture where society at large depends upon credible, accurate, relevant, scientific information. Medical Affairs has increasingly become a third pillar of the pharmaceutical enterprise partnering closely with R&D and Commercial.”

“In the same way innovations such as the steam engine and electricity transformed our world, AI is set to be one of the defining innovations of our lifetime. If people haven’t thought about how AI can benefit the patients and the clinicians we serve, now is the time to begin reflecting and taking action, because everything from this point will be changed as a result.”

Inizio Medical is an industry leader in the use of AI in medical and healthcare communications and an early adopter of the technology, having worked in the space for nearly 10 years before wider adoption. The team has completed over 500 projects utilizing AI across all aspects of Medical Affairs for their international client portfolio. These have ranged from landscape assessments to scientific platform development, patient lay summaries to systematic literature reviews, and medical omnichannel campaigns.

You can find out more about Inizio Medical here, or read the full HCA statement here and the ISMPP statement here.