Improving health literacy and patient well-being

The setup was simple. Dr. Ali and Dr. Mirza fed Lifespan’s surgical consent form into GPT‑4, along with a short prompt: “While preserving content and meaning, convert this consent form to the average American reading level.” GPT‑4 generated a draft of the surgical consent form at approximately a 6th grade reading level with a 25 percent reduction in word count. GPT‑4 was so accurate that Lifespan’s clinicians only added one single modification: Anesthesiology leadership inserted the term "sleep medicine" next to the word “anesthesia” on the consent form.

In September 2023, Lifespan began deploying the revised surgical consent forms, reduced from three pages to one page, across the Lifespan health system. Dr. Dean Roye, Rhode Island Hospital’s Chief Medical Officer and an early supporter of the initiative, affirmed that the conciseness and simplicity was particularly enticing for physician buy-in, who felt that lengthy forms were less accessible for patients. 

So far, the response among patients has also been overwhelmingly positive. 

“Surgical consent conversations can be very overwhelming and emotionally charged for patients,” Dr. Mirza said. “Since we’ve implemented the simplified consent forms, countless patients have expressed how meaningful it is for them to have a one-page form they can understand. It’s a welcome source of comfort in a period of heavy uncertainty.”