Rewrite consent forms at a sixth-grade reading level
Our surgical consent forms read like legal text, and I doubt patients understand what they are signing.
Small readability evaluation No patient data Individual access available
Source check: 2026-11-11 · Physician review: not yet recorded
The workflow
- Start from your blank consent form template, with no patient information in it.
- Paste it into ChatGPT and ask it to convert the document to a sixth-grade reading level without cutting the word count by more than 20%.
- Compare the new version line by line with the original and confirm every risk, benefit and alternative is still there, because the AI may cut more than you asked.
- Have a physician who does the procedure check the wording for accuracy, and fix any awkward grammar.
- Send the revised form through your hospital's or practice's usual consent form approval before any patient sees it.
Tools and cost
USD unless stated otherwise. Billing periods and eligibility matter. A tool listed here was not necessarily tested in the cited study.
Individual self-service
Consumer Free is separate from the BAA-eligible clinician workspace.
What the evidence supports
A study of four spine-surgery consent forms reduced mean reading grade level from 11.37 to 6.67 and word count by 43%. Clinician reviewers assessed retained essential content.
Primary study · Read the source ↗
Where it goes wrong
No patients were tested for understanding. Lower reading level alone does not establish valid informed consent, and the model exceeded the requested word reduction.