AI is flooding the internet with low-quality healthcare content that hasn’t been medically reviewed for accuracy.
While this can (and should) be viewed as a big problem, it’s also a unique opportunity for hospitals and healthcare systems to stand out as trusted patient resources.
We recently sat down with Ed Bennett, Founder of MarTech.Health and a respected voice in healthcare marketing, to discuss how hospitals can use AI tools strategically to outrank unverified AI content.
Together with Ed, we share insights for doing just that in our latest podcast.
Listen to the podcast:
In case you don’t have time to listen to the entire podcast, here’s a summary:
Get to Know Ed Bennett, Founder of MarTech.Health
Ed Bennett’s career has closely followed the evolution of the internet and its impact on healthcare communications. He built foundational websites for over 100 companies in the 90s and later spearheaded digital and search engine marketing strategies at the University of Maryland Medical Systems.
Leveraging this extensive experience, Ed launched MarTech.Health, a comprehensive resource directory for healthcare organizations seeking vendors specializing in healthcare marketing, communications, and digital solutions.
Today, he continues following internet trends related to the healthcare industry. He shares his insights on how AI is quickly taking over the internet and what hospitals can do about it to maintain trust and credibility.
The Fundamental Problem With AI-Generated Content
“AI is churning out an enormous amount of mediocre, unverified healthcare information, creating a landfill of content that’s drowning out high quality, medically reviewed websites. As a result, people are seeking out reliable sources of verified truth,” says Ed Bennett.
Unfortunately, reliable sources are getting harder to find online, especially since Google rolled back a decision to penalize businesses that use AI-generated content. This shift means the search engine may treat AI-generated content similarly to human-created content, making it even more challenging to distinguish credible medical information from potentially harmful misinformation.
Establish Trust Through Verified Medical Content
“Hospitals should challenge AI content by creating a library or resource guide of verified, reliable information on medical conditions and treatments,” Ed explains. “This approach positions hospitals as trusted, expert resources for accurate medical content.”
Creating deep, relevant content that meets user intent and community needs is essential to maintaining your hospital’s reputation and local recognition as a reliable resource.
How Hospitals Can Leverage AI to Create Content & Why They Should
Your patients want accurate content they can trust. With AI-generated content flooding the internet, you may feel pressured to use it. But should you?
We agree with Ed when he says it’s okay to use AI strategically, especially when researching topics or creating high-level content strategies. “AI is an excellent resource for summarizing complex content, fact-checking, and initial drafting. But it should be used as a tool that assists human content creators—not one that replaces them.”
While a modern marvel, AI is limited. It cannot create high-quality, original content but can enhance, polish, improve clarity, and help maintain specific reading levels of a human writer’s work. But that, too, requires a thorough medical review to ensure everything is on point—accuracy, brand tone, messaging, and more.
The Importance of Medical Reviews and Approvals
While AI can help improve content quality and increase the volume of content, anytime you write for healthcare, it must be reviewed and approved by a medical professional with the right expertise to provide an added layer of credibility.
Getting medical professionals involved does three very important things:
- Builds relationships between you and the hospital.
- Helps physicians promote their services and expertise.
- Ensures content is aligned with the latest medical guidelines and best practices.
Tip: Physicians and medical professionals are busy. Establish clear processes that help make the review and approval process as easy as possible to ensure timely responses.
Combining AI With Human Expertise for Unique, Locally Relevant Content
While AI can improve and polish your content, it cannot create original, unique content. Human content creators must still do the research, organize talking points and questions, and interview subject matter experts or individuals managing the issues they’re writing about.
Combining first-hand community perspectives and medical expertise from hospital physicians also adds a crucial layer of credibility. Ed posits, “It humanizes your business and sets it up as an entity that cares about the community enough to talk about local health-related issues with authority figures.”
It also helps you create high-quality content that’s unique to your target audience, which can be very effective for reaching your business goals.
AI Do’s and Don’ts for Healthcare Content Creation
- Don’t rely solely on AI-generated content.
- Don’t accept AI-generated facts as truths.
- Don’t rely on AI-generated content for tone and messaging.
- Don’t use AI-generated content as a final product.
- Do thoroughly review all AI-generated content (e.g., copy editor, medical professional, subject matter expert, etc.).
- Do fact check rigorously.
- Do ensure all AI-generated content matches your hospital’s tone, voice, and brand messaging.
- Do use AI-generated content as a starting point, rough draft, or to help polish your original content.
When asked what to avoid when it comes to AI, Ed was clear, “AI is a tool, not a solution. As it gets better and better, it will generate copy that looks very polished. But it must always be reviewed carefully to ensure it is factual, medically accurate, and aligns with your brand voice.”
We couldn’t agree more.
This Summary Is Brought to You, In Part, By AI
To capture our conversation, Ed recommended using an AI tool called Fathom, which provided a written summary and a full transcript of our podcast discussion.
It allowed us to create a high-quality summary of his valuable insights faster while maintaining our brand voice and meeting our quality standards.
Special Thanks to Ed Bennett
I want to thank Ed again for sharing his time, experience, and insights with us. I look forward to speaking to him again to further unravel the ever-changing world of artificial intelligence.
I hope this summary has shown you that AI can be valuable for creating content when used as a tool, not a solution. If you’d like to learn more about Ed or his free directory, I encourage you to visit MarTech.health.
For more in-depth coverage of AI and its use in healthcare content marketing, I highly recommend listening to our podcast in its entirety.
We invite you to subscribe to our blog and connect with us on LinkedIn at Stewart Gandolf and Healthcare Success.
