I recently asked my favorite AI Assistant, Perplexity, to do an “abstractive summarization” task, which involves generating new text to express the main ideas in a piece of original text in a more natural, often simpler way.
I (Anna) have hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM), an inherited condition where the heart muscle becomes abnormally thick, making it harder for the heart to pump blood.
Not being a medical expert myself, I often consult medical articles I find on the Internet to better understand symptoms and treatments. I do this not to try to “second-guess” my medical team, but to give myself contextual information for office and treatment appointments.
Perplexity has been very helpful in guiding me to relevant information and helping me understand medical articles that challenge my limited medical knowledge and experience.
In this example, I asked Perplexity for help in “decoding” an article I found on the AHA (American Heart Association) website about orthostatic hypotension (OH), which happens when a person’s blood pressure drops too much when they stand up.
I was happy with the results. Here are the steps I followed.
1. I first accessed and read through the article, which appeared to have potentially valuable information, but was hard for me to understand. The concepts were complex, and I was unfamiliar with some of the medical terminology.
2. I then asked Perplexity to summarize the article in “everyday language.” The summary was well organized and helpful. I especially liked the “Takeaway” that Perplexity included.
3. I asked Perplexity to give me a list of 10-12 medical terms used in the article, along with their definitions.
