Part 2 | Putting it to work

Chapter 12. Patient explanations, materials, and publishing

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Key points

Generative AI extends your ability to communicate
It applies to patient explanations, internal material, social media and blogs
Combine it with image generation and you can make genuinely bespoke handouts

A therapist's work is also communication

More of a therapist's work than you would think is communication: patient explanations, home exercise handouts, study groups, internal presentations, email, social media, blogs. All of it is conveying something to someone. Which is exactly why the fit with generative AI is good.

Making patient explanations clearer

Rather than

"Explain low back pain."

try

"Explain this so a woman in her seventies will follow it, without jargon, and without stoking anxiety."

and the texture changes completely. You can also specify

in bullets
as an FAQ
as an outline with places for illustrations
in a gentle tone

Explaining to a patient is, in part, the work of translating specialist knowledge for a general reader. AI supports that translation with real accuracy.

Material for study groups and internal presentations

Slide structure, summarising, diagrams and layout all take time. AI can quickly produce

a distillation of the key points
a slide structure
candidate titles
organised headings
speaker notes

For instance:

"Organise this paper for a five-minute presentation to new therapists, structured as ten slides."

Specifying audience, length and slide count makes it far more usable.

Email, social media, blogs

Daily work eats surprising amounts of time on replies, posts, articles and messages. AI is good at

softening the tone
making something more courteous
pulling out the key points
shortening it

and switching voice to suit a manager, another profession, a family member or a patient.

Image generation has come a long way

Beyond text, image generation has become genuinely useful. ChatGPT, Gemini and Claude have all improved here.

exercise illustrations
stretching diagrams
rough anatomical images
banners for social media

can now be produced from a written instruction.

But be careful with fine bodily detail

At the same time,

precise joint angles
accurate anatomical positions
subtle directions of movement
the number of fingers, or posture

can still come out unnatural. Do not hand generated images straight to patients: a specialist must do the final check. In healthcare and exercise instruction, an inaccurate image risks teaching the wrong thing.

Slide-making AI

Tools that build the slides themselves are multiplying. At the time of writing,

Gemini Notebook (Google)
Gamma
Canva AI

are easy to work with. Gemini Notebook is a particularly good fit for organising, summarising, structuring and even narrating long material, which makes it well suited to preparing a study group.

Bespoke has become easier

Time pressure, the difficulty of finding images and the tedium of making materials used to push people towards templates and stock images. Generative AI makes it far easier to produce

your own explanations
your own images
wording pitched at this particular person

In other words,

it has become much easier to make something bespoke

which feeds directly into patient satisfaction, how well teaching lands, and the quality of what you publish.

A prompt to try

You are an experienced physical therapist with a reputation for patient education.

[Audience] A woman in her seventies with chronic low back pain and high anxiety.

[Request] Draft a home exercise handout to give to someone like her.

[Conditions]

fits on a single A4 page

minimal jargon; if you use a term, gloss it

at most three exercises, each with purpose, method, repetitions, cautions, and what to do if pain appears

end with a space for "who to contact if you are worried"

a gentle tone that does not stoke anxiety

Chapter 12 summary

Everything communicative — patient explanations, internal material, social media, blogs — improves
Combined with image generation, bespoke handouts become practical
Images of fine anatomy or movement must always be checked by a specialist

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