Carnegie Mellon Students and Faculty Use AI to Help Transplant Centers Improve Patient Education Resources
Impact: This project provided transplant centers with the first large-scale, data-driven benchmark of patient education materials—helping them identify gaps and inconsistencies in the information they provide. By applying AI to a critical public health issue, the team delivered actionable insights that can improve patient understanding, support informed decision-making, and ultimately enhance outcomes for transplant recipients across the U.S.
Lead Researcher: Professor Rema Padman, Trustees Professor of Management Science and Healthcare Informatics
Summary: A team of graduate students from Carnegie Mellon University's Heinz College partnered with the nonprofit Transplants.org and health tech experts at Oracle to evaluate transplant patient education materials from 23 U.S. transplant centers. Using natural language processing and generative AI, the students conducted the largest known analysis of these materials to date—identifying gaps, inconsistencies, and opportunities to improve how life-saving information is delivered to patients. The project offers a scalable, data-driven approach to benchmarking health communication, with broad implications for health equity and patient-centered care.
