Gains:
- Ability to produce artificial intelligence materials that translate audiogram and device information into plain Turkish that the patient and family can understand and verify readability
- Ability to prepare training material and user manual drafts suitable for communication with children, the elderly and the hearing impaired.
- Ability to manage the risks of false/exaggerated promises, limits of medical advice and cultural appropriateness in training material
There is something more important in audiology than technical accuracy: understanding by the patient and his family. Explaining an audiogram as "air-bone gap, high-frequency predominant sensorineural loss" is correct for your colleague, but meaningless for the patient. Patient education in hearing health directly affects the success of the treatment: a patient who does not understand why and how to use his device puts it in a drawer. In this unit, we will cover how to use artificial intelligence as a material producer that translates clinical information into simple, accurate and culturally appropriate Turkish, but why you need to verify every material produced.
Main principle: AI is very powerful at translating technical information into plain language; but when simplifying, it may missimplify the information, add exaggerated promises, or exceed the limits of medical advice. Each material must pass expert filtering and readability control.
Principles of plain language
Plain language is not about "reducing information", but about "making correct information understandable". A few basic principles:
Explain the term, then use it. Instead of "audiogram" it's like "a graph that measures your hearing (audiogram)". Explaining the term once rather than discarding it entirely preserves both clarity and accuracy.
Short sentence, concrete example. Instead of "You have loss of high frequencies," say, "You have a harder time hearing high-pitched sounds — like birdsong, the letters 's' and 'sh'."
Tell him what to do. Action is as important as knowledge: "Plug in your device every morning, use it briefly in loud environments for the first week."
Adjust the readability level according to the target audience. Language is different for an elderly patient, parent or child.
Tip: Simple way to find out if a material is plain: read the text out loud. If you cannot finish a sentence without taking a breath, or if you stop and ask "what does this mean?", the patient will say it too.
Why patient education determines treatment success
Patient compliance in hearing health, as in most chronic conditions, is the weakest link of success. Research and clinical experience show that a significant portion of prescribed hearing aids remain in the drawer because the patient does not use the device sufficiently. The most common reason for this is not a technical defect, but a mismatch of expectations and incomprehensible usage information: the patient gets frustrated and gives up because of the strange sounds of the device in the first days, the adaptation process and not knowing the correct insertion-disconnection routine. This is where a well-structured, simple training material comes into play; It tells the patient in advance "what to expect", normalizes the adaptation process and prevents him from giving up at the first difficulties.
Artificial intelligence makes a two-fold contribution here. The first is that it can quickly reproduce the same content at different reading levels and for different audiences; This makes it practical to produce individually tailored materials rather than a single 'one size fits all' brochure. Second, it helps the specialist catch jargon that he or she may miss in everyday language: he recognizes terms such as “sensorineural,” “compression,” “occlusion,” and suggests plain equivalents. But none of these contributions eliminate the need for the expert to monitor the clinical accuracy and realism of the material produced — AI can distort information while simplifying.
Different target audiences
The table below summarizes how and for whom to tailor the material.
target audience
Language feature
attention will be paid
old patient
Large print, short steps, repetition
Manual dexterity, vision, memory
Child (for parent)
Concrete, reassuring
Development, school, game language
Hearing impaired individual
Visual support, clear visual flow
Text-heavy, sign language resource
Young/active patient
Short, practical, connectivity
expectation management
Step by step: material production with artificial intelligence
- Identify the source and target. Clarify from which verified information you will produce material and for whom.
- Anonymize. Do not provide identification information to the vehicle, even on individual material; Use general/example language.
- Give simplification instructions. State the reading level, terminology explanation, and concrete example rule.
- Limit exaggeration and advice. Ask for “heals but does not return to normal” language; Add "consult your specialist" instead of medical advice.
- Verify. Check the clinical accuracy and readability of information; Try it with the patient if necessary.
- Get it approved by an expert. Obtain audiologist/physician approval before distributing material.
Weak prompt / Strong prompt
Weak prompt:
Write a brochure to the patient about hearing aids.
There is no target audience, reading level, limit. AI can produce generic, sometimes exaggerated and overly technical text.
Powerful prompt:
Your role: patient education material assistant. For a patient aged 70+, write a simple Turkish text explaining, in large steps, each technical term once. Topic: getting used to a new hearing aid in the first 2 weeks. Guidelines: (1) state that the device "helps improve" hearing but does not "completely normalize" it; (2) providing medical advice, including "consult your audiologist" where necessary; (3) using exaggerated promises; (4) use short sentences and concrete examples. Finally, add a 5-item "first week to do" list.
A strong prompt clearly determines the target audience, reading level, exaggeration and recommendation limits, and structure.
three mini cases
Case 1 — Correcting exaggeration. While an audiologist prepares a brochure for the user of a new device, artificial intelligence makes the sentence "with this device, your hearing will be as perfect as before." The expert corrects this by saying "this device helps you hear conversations more clearly; it may take a few weeks to get used to it." Extravagant promise is drawn into realistic and honest language. The patient does not experience disappointment.
Case 2 — For the child's family. For the family of a 4-year-old child who will use hearing aids, the audiologist asks the artificial intelligence for a concrete, reassuring text: explaining how the device helps the child's speech development, the daily wearing routine, and what to pay attention to at school. The expert approves the text; family adapts to device use more easily. Instead of complex technical explanations, actions that the family can take are highlighted.
Case 3 — Readability trial. An audiologist has a patient read a tinnitus information text produced by artificial intelligence; The patient gets stuck in two sentences. The expert rewrites those sentences to the artificial intelligence to "make them shorter and more concrete." The text drops from a 9th grade reading level to a more accessible level. Lesson: readability is not assumed, it is tested.
Copiable prompt templates
PLAIN LANGUAGE TRANSLATION TEMPLATETranslate the following technical description into plain Turkish for [target audience]. Explain each term once, use short sentences and concrete examples, do not make exaggerated promises. Technical text: [text]
TARGET AUDIENCE ADAPTATION TEMPLATERewrite the following patient material for [elderly / child family / young / hearing impaired]. Use appropriate reading level, concrete examples, and action steps.Material: [text]
EXACUTION AND ADVICE LIMIT CHECK TEMPLATEDoes the following material contain (1) exaggerated/unrealistic promises, (2) statements that exceed the limit of medical advice? Tick each and suggest a realistic/appropriate equivalent. Material: [text]
INSTRUCTIONS FOR USE TEMPLATE Write a numbered, short-step patient instructions for use for [device/procedure]. Each step contains one action. Add a note at the end: "If there are problems, consult your audiologist." Context: [situation]
Common mistakes
- Exaggerated promise. Leaving unrealistic expressions such as "it will completely return to normal" and "it will definitely go away" without correction.
- False simplification. Distorting the essence of the information while simplifying it (e.g. "screening = diagnosis").
- Going beyond medical advice. Making dose/treatment decisions in the material; Giving instructions instead of saying "consult your expert."
- Assuming readability. Considering the text "understandable" without testing it with the patient.
- Cultural incompatibility. Using examples that do not fit the language, age and context of the target audience.
In summary
Patient and family education is an invisible but decisive part of treatment success. Artificial intelligence is very powerful in translating technical information into simple, concrete and action-oriented Turkish; but when simplifying, it may distort the information, add exaggerated promises, or exceed the recommendation limit. It is essential to specify the target audience, reading level and realistic language in each material, verify the output in terms of clinical accuracy and readability, and pass it through expert approval.
Application task
Choose a clinical description (e.g., “high-frequency sensorineural hearing loss”) and use the “plain language” template to produce two different versions, first for an elderly patient and then for the family of a child. Apply the "Check hyperbole and advice limit" template to both and fix any problems you find. If possible, test readability by reading the text out loud or having someone else read it.
checklist
- [ ] I specified the target audience and reading level.
- [ ] I explained each technical term once and used concrete examples.
- [ ] I have weeded out over-promises and violations of medical advice limits.
- [ ] I added the "Consult your expert" guidance in appropriate places.
- [ ] I tried/checked the readability.
- [ ] I subjected the material to expert approval before distributing it.