Readability Optimization of Layperson Summaries in Urological Oncology Clinical Trials: Outcomes from the BRIDGE-AI 8 Study

Accessible health information is essential to promote patient engagement and informed participation in clinical research. Brief summaries on ClinicalTrials.gov are indented for lay people, however are often written at a reading level that is too advanced for the public. This study evaluated the performance of a Generative Artificial Intelligence (GAI) powered tool - Pub2Post-, in producing readable and complete layperson brief summaries for urologic oncology clinical trials. Twenty actively recruiting clinical trials on prostate, bladder, kidney, and testis cancers were retrieved from ClinicalTrials.gov. For each, a GAI-generated summary was produced and compared with its publicly available counterpart. Readability indices, grade-level indicators, and text metrics were analyzed alongside content inclusion across eight structural domains. GAI-generated summaries demonstrated markedly improved readability (mean FRES 73.3 ± 3.5 vs. 17.0 ± 13.1; p < 0.0001), aligning with the recommended middle-school reading level, and achieved 100% inclusion of guideline-defined content elements. GAI summaries exhibited simpler syntax and reduced lexical complexity, supporting improved comprehension. These findings suggest that GAI tools such as Pub2Post can generate patient-facing summaries that are both accessible and comprehensive.