From research to creating text and other forms of multimedia content, AI is fundamentally changing the way we generate and share knowledge.
For some, this is in particular is seen as a worrying trend that may lead to a rise in misinformation thanks to AI-generated content that hasn’t gone through rigorous checks.
For industries like medicine and science, the way that AI affects communications is a particularly pressing topic.
There are a number of justifiable reasons for this. In recent years, science misinformation has been on the rise. The COVID-19 pandemic put this into focus.
The knock-on effect impacted healthcare, confidence in vaccines and trust in the voice medical professionals.
For industries like life sciences and biopharmaceuticals, addressing medical misinformation is key to engaging with the public and getting new treatments into the hands of patients.
Rather than being an agent of misinformation, other experts believe that AI could actually help to rebuild trust and improve science communication across the board. A recent study published in PNAS Nexus, argues that AI-generated summaries both improve the public’s understanding of science and present scientists in a more favorable light.
For Francine Carrick, a science communication veteran with over 20 years of experience, the rise of AI-generated content isn’t something to be feared but a new opportunity.
Carrick has previously explained that: “we’re at this incredible inflection point where evolving regulations, increasingly complex data, and the rise of AI are fundamentally reshaping how we communicate science.”
Carrick has spent nearly 7 years leading various facets of business and client strategy for the Envision Pharma Group before joining the BCB Group as Managing Director for Medical Communications in 2024.
Since then, she has worked as Chief Commercial Growth Officer for private equity-backed companies. This means Carrick is well versed in the field of medical communication and the barriers that have been limiting experts in the field.
“What excites me most is that AI isn’t just speeding things up, it has the potential to make medical communications more precise, more accessible, and more impactful than ever before.”
“Imagine publications that adapt in real time to new evidence, or tools that help authors surface insights buried in mountains of clinical data. We’re just scratching the surface,” she explained. This week, Carrick is set to unlock widespread access to AI for the life sciences industry as she is appointed the President of Prezent Vivo.
A new era for Medical Communications with AI
Carrick was previously named as a healthcare leader by Inventive Health, thanks to her work leading the EVP agency’s team of scientific, digital and insights strategists to uncover unique human and product truths that inform award-winning creative.
Now, Carrick will bring this same visionary work to establish Prezent Vivo as a way to give companies and communication agencies in the life sciences industry with reliable access to AI.
Without access to AI tools that have scientific depth and rigorous accuracy, scaling these tools hasn’t been possible. Outsourcing these content tasks to traditional agencies is always an option, but the process is slow due to the specialist nature of the work.
Prezent Vivo brings AI-powered communication to the life sciences industry by fusing a bespoke LLM built to understand industry context and nuance with domain experts for the first time.
For Carrick, this was key. “I joined Prezent Vivo because I dreamt of a solution that would let the best people in MedComms bring more value to their clients.”
“MedComms is undergoing a real transformation, and the agencies I’ve admired most are the ones asking how to elevate their experts,” the executive added.
Prezent Vivo eliminates the tradeoff that has limited the use of AI tools in the industry to date by combining purpose-built AI and embedded domain experts to produce communications that are fast, cost-effective, scientifically precise, and compliant.
Here, the key differentiator with Prezent Vivo is its ability to fuse two capabilities for the first time.
First of all, Astrid AI represents an agent purpose-built for Life Sciences communication and trained on brand compliance requirements, regulatory language, clinical evidence structures, and commercial and medical strategy context.
This is complemented by human domain experts such as presentation engineers, MedComms engineers, and medical writers. They provide the scientific judgment and strategic narrative to ensure life science organizations will receive high-stakes communications that are ready for the audience and can be relied on.
With these two sides working together, the industry can finally benefit from the speed of AI-powered communication at scale without sacrificing precision or compliance.
Disrupting the traditional agency model with AI
The original communication platform at Prezent will continue to support the presentation goals for business across industries. Vivo sits adjacent to this core business model, offering a broader range of communication outputs on the one hand, but also much deeper domain expertise to adequately serve the life science and biopharma industries.
The newly launched Vivo platform offers AI-powered communication at speed and scale across the full spectrum of content deliverables. This includes the full product lifecycle that ranges from congress posters, data visualization, scientific documents, brochures, MSL narrative decks, advisory board materials, to national sales meetings and more.
Prezent Vivo delivers speed and scientific rigor across the full product lifecycle, helping biopharma companies unlock 35%-85% cost reduction compared to traditional agencies.
However, while companies can choose to use the platform directly, Prezent Vivo has also built with agencies in mind. Here, Vivo isn’t here to replace MedComms agencies but make them more profitable, letting the AI handle production so experts can focus on the scientific strategy. Prezent Vivo enables agencies to deliver three times more project volume per writer without adding headcount.
Bringing AI to the life sciences
Experts in the life sciences industry need to be able to communicate with clarity and fight disinformation. While compliance and accuracy concerns, have limited the use of AI to create communication materials in the past, Prezent Vivo offers a glimpse into how the technology can be used to amplify the voice of scientific experts and improve patient engagement.
