Artificial Intelligence-Generated Written Communication for Families of Intensive Care Unit Patients

NCT06969196 | Completed

• 1 other identifier: 25040406
• Study Type: interventional
• Target: 27
• Locations: 1 country
• Sites: 1

Brief Summary

Our research group has developed an approach for providing families of ICU patients with daily written summaries of care as a supplement to traditional verbal communication. Written summaries describe the patient's main ICU problems and management plan and are delivered to families each day. Despite the benefits of written communication to both the family and clinician experience, the main barrier to implementing this communication approach is the time required for clinicians to create a written summary. For the proposed pilot study, the investgators will ask ICU clinicians to identify patients and respective families for whom there has been a challenge with communication. The investigators will ask ICU clinicians to edit AI-generated written summaries for content and clarity before they are delivered to families. The investigators hypothesize that this process will acceptable and feasible for ICU clinicians and families.

Conditions

Communication; ICU

Outcome Measures

Primary Outcomes (4)

• Communication Quality (Clinicians)

  Clinician participants will ratings of quality of AI-generated written summaries and whether written summaries address family-specific communication challenges (5-point Likert scale, 1-5 points with higher scores indicating better quality)

  Through study completion, an average of one week

• Communication Quality (Families/Surrogates)

  The Family Inpatient Communication Survey (FICS) is a 30-item survey measuring of the quality of communication with the treatment team from the perspective of families of hospitalized patients. Items on this survey measure the informational and emotional aspects of communication, and each item of this survey is rated on a 5-point Likert scale from strongly agree to strongly disagree (30-150 points with higher scores indicating better quality communication)

  Average one week after enrollment

• Acceptability of intervention

  Acceptability of the intervention will reflected in adequate enrollment and an average score of at least 3.5 on surveys with 5-point Likert scale measures including the Acceptability of Intervention (AIM), Appropriateness of Intervention (IAM), and Feasibility of Intervention Survey (FIM) (1-5 point with higher scores being better)

  Average one week after enrollment

• Feasibility of intervention

  Feasibility will be determined by written communication being created for at least 80% of all ICU days and less than 5 minutes on average being spent editing each AI-generated summary.

  Through study completion, an average of one week

Other Outcomes (1)

• Analysis of Individual Interviews

  Average one week after enrollment

Study Arms (1)

Written Communication

EXPERIMENTAL

AI-edited, ICU clinician edited written communication

Other: Written Communicatoin

Interventions

Written Communicatoin OTHER

ICU clinicians will be asked to edit AI-generated written summaries for content and clarity before they are delivered to families

Written Communication

Eligibility Criteria

• Age: 18 Years+
• Sex: all
• Healthy Volunteers: No
• Age Groups: Adult (18-64), Older Adult (65+)

Surrogate Inclusion * One self-identified adult decision maker for an adult medical ICU patient cared for on the 10W ICU * Member of the primary ICU team believes the respective patient will require at least three additional days of ICU care * Member of the primary ICU team has identified at least one communication challenge with the patient's surrogate(s) including but not limited to: 1. Complex medical issues requiring frequent updates to families 2. Complex family dynamics (i.e., multiple involved family members) 3. Increased anxiety/stress of surrogate(s) 4. Difficult to provide updates to family members because they do not visit ICU regularly or are hard to reach by phone Surrogate Exclusion * Surrogate cannot read or understand English * Surrogate is unwilling or unable to participate in study procedures * Patient is decisional and refuses to allow surrogate participation Clinician Inclusion • Advanced practice provider (APP) on the medical ICU team on the 10W ICU Clinician Exclusion • None

Contact the study team to discuss eligibility requirements. They can help determine if this study is right for you.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Rush University Medical Center: lead

Study Sites (1)

Rush University Medical Center

Chicago, Illinois, 60612, United States

Location

Related Publications (3)

• Lee JJ, Mathur S, Gerhart J, Glover CM, Ritz E, Basapur S, Greenberg JA. Written communication and the ICU team experience (WRITE): A pre-post intervention study. Intensive Crit Care Nurs. 2024 Oct;84:103753. doi: 10.1016/j.iccn.2024.103753. Epub 2024 Jun 25.

  PMID: 38924848 BACKGROUND

• Greenberg JA, Basapur S, Quinn TV, Bulger JL, Schwartz NH, Oh SK, Ritz EM, Glover CM, Shah RC. Daily Written Care Summaries for Families of Critically Ill Patients: A Randomized Controlled Trial. Crit Care Med. 2022 Sep 1;50(9):1296-1305. doi: 10.1097/CCM.0000000000005583. Epub 2022 May 23.

  PMID: 35607975 BACKGROUND

• Bulger JL, Quinn TV, Glover CM, Basapur S, Shah RC, Greenberg JA. Written Care Summaries Facilitate Communication Between Families and Providers of ICU Patients: A Pilot Study. Crit Care Explor. 2021 Jul 13;3(7):e0473. doi: 10.1097/CCE.0000000000000473. eCollection 2021 Jul.

  PMID: 34278309 BACKGROUND

MeSH Terms

Conditions

Communication

Condition Hierarchy (Ancestors)

Behavior

Study Design

• Study Type: interventional
• Phase: not applicable
• Allocation: NA
• Masking: NONE
• Purpose: HEALTH SERVICES RESEARCH
• Intervention Model: SINGLE GROUP
• Sponsor Type: OTHER
• Responsible Party: SPONSOR

Study Record Dates

• First Submitted: April 18, 2025
• First Posted: May 13, 2025
• Study Start: July 7, 2025
• Primary Completion: September 20, 2025
• Study Completion: October 20, 2025
• Last Updated: December 10, 2025

Record last verified: 2025-12

Locations

US (1)