{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,30]],"date-time":"2026-09-30T23:03:10Z","timestamp":1790809390656,"version":"4.1.0"},"reference-count":40,"publisher":"Frontiers Media SA","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,29]],"date-time":"2026-09-29T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1790640000000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100013365","name":"West China Hospital, Sichuan University","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100013365","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]},{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100001809","name":"National Natural Science Foundation of China","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100001809","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":["frontiersin.org"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["Front. Public Health"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Biomedical visualization increasingly spans traditional medical illustration, synthetic medical imaging, vision-language systems, and patient-specific 3D reconstruction. This narrative review examines applications of artificial intelligence (AI) across this field, with particular attention to medical education and scientific and clinical communication. We searched PubMed\/MEDLINE and IEEE Xplore for English-language literature published from January 2017 through September 2026, supplemented by targeted searches of publisher databases and reference-list screening. Included publications addressed AI-enabled medical or anatomical illustration, text-to-image generation, synthetic medical imaging, vision-language models, 3D reconstruction, or immersive biomedical visualization. Current evidence indicates that diffusion models can rapidly generate visually persuasive and customizable drafts, whereas segmentation-guided synthesis and anatomy-aware 3D methods offer stronger structural control in defined tasks. However, direct evaluations of general-purpose text-to-image systems consistently identify fabricated anatomy, incorrect labels, prompt- and model-dependent variability, demographic bias, and limited reliability for complex structures or procedures. Vision-language models can support prompt refinement, annotation, and consistency checking, but they cannot ensure scientific accuracy and may evaluate flawed AI outputs more favorably than human experts. Evidence supporting AI-generated educational illustrations remains less mature than that supporting conventional 3D and virtual-reality learning environments. We therefore distinguish established applications from emerging or prospective uses and propose an expert-supervised workflow incorporating documented prompts and model versions, structure-specific validation, manual correction, and transparent disclosure. AI should currently be treated as a drafting and visualization aid, with domain-expert verification required before educational, clinical, or scientific use.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3389\/fpubh.2026.1956708","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,29]],"date-time":"2026-09-29T14:30:54Z","timestamp":1790692254000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3389\/crossmark-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Artificial intelligence in biomedical visualization and education: a narrative review"],"prefix":"10.3389","volume":"14","author":[{"given":"Xin","family":"Wang","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of General Surgery, Division of Breast Surgery, West China Hospital, Sichuan University","place":["Chengdu, China"]},{"name":"Breast Center, West China Hospital, Sichuan University","place":["Chengdu, China"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Linlin","family":"Song","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Ultrasound Department, Institute of Breast Health Medicine, West China Hospital, Sichuan University","place":["Chengdu, China"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Bolin","family":"Liu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Operations Management, West China Hospital, Sichuan University","place":["Chengdu, China"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Jie","family":"Chen","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of General Surgery, Division of Breast Surgery, West China Hospital, Sichuan University","place":["Chengdu, China"]},{"name":"Breast Center, West China Hospital, Sichuan University","place":["Chengdu, China"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Haina","family":"Zhao","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Ultrasound Department, Institute of Breast Health Medicine, West China Hospital, Sichuan University","place":["Chengdu, China"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1965","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,29]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"1145","DOI":"10.1148\/rg.2018170088","article-title":"Digital medical illustration for the radiologist","volume":"38","author":"McCarty","year":"2018","journal-title":"Radiographics"},{"key":"ref2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"97","DOI":"10.1016\/j.jpra.2021.02.008","article-title":"Digital art-a useful tool for medical professionals to create medical illustrations","volume":"28","author":"Appukuttan","year":"2021","journal-title":"JPRAS 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