Clinical trial NCT03284359: Use of Nudges To Enhance Enrollment in Critical Care Research
Official title: A Randomized Trial of Nudges To Enhance Enrollment in Critical Care Research
Study type: INTERVENTIONAL
Overall status: COMPLETED
Phase: NA
Conditions: Critical Illness
Keywords: Critical Illness
Mechanical Ventilation
Economics, Behavioral
Surrogate decision maker
Lead sponsor: University of Pennsylvania
Sponsor class: OTHER
First posted: 2017-09-15
Enrollment: 182
Sex: ALL
Minimum age (years): 18
Standard ages: ADULT
OLDER_ADULT
Accepts healthy volunteers: yes
Allocation: RANDOMIZED
Intervention model: PARALLEL
Primary purpose: HEALTH_SERVICES_RESEARCH

Brief summary: Difficulties enrolling patients in randomized clinical trials (RCTs) have long been recognized as a major barrier to successful evaluation of medical interventions. This is particularly problematic among intensive care unit (ICU) trials, of which more than one-third do not reach target enrollment. Under-enrollment and selective enrollment reduce RCTs' abilities to answer the research questions, thereby degrading the trials' scientific value and ethics.

Current evidence suggests that financial incentives can ethically increase study enrollment, but this approach can pose large up-front costs to researchers. However, several nonmonetary behavioral interventions, or nudges, may offer novel and easily scalable approaches to increase enrollment in RCTs.

The investigation team propose a 2-arm RCT in 10 ICUs at Penn to test the relative effectiveness of nudges on enrollment rates. Investigators hypothesize that a bundle of nudges during recruitment will increase enrollment rates compared to usual recruitment procedures will increase enrollment.

Investigators will enroll 182 critically ill patients' surrogate decision makers(participants) to engage in recruitment procedures for a simulated RCT comparing two mechanical ventilation weaning protocols among mechanically ventilated patients. Investigators will also measure participants' assessment of risk of the simulated trial after the informed consent process. This work will provide the first empirical evidence regarding the efficacy of inexpensive, scalable nudges to potentially augment enrollment and reduce costs of future clinical trials.


Eligibility criteria: Inclusion Criteria:

Surrogate decision-makers of patients who are:

1. Patient and surrogate is 18 years of age or older
2. Surrogate is English-proficient
3. Patient is mechanically ventilated
4. Patient is admitted to participating ICU

Exclusion Criteria:

Surrogate decision-makers of patients who are:

1. Patient is receiving comfort care only
2. Patient has anticipated extubation in the next 24 hours.
3. Patient with tracheostomy.
4. Bedside clinician declines patient participation.
5. Surrogate decision maker not available to approach prior to patient being extubated.

Primary outcomes:
measure: Consent Rate
timeFrame: Up to 96 hours
Secondary outcomes:
measure: Risk Assessment
timeFrame: Up to 96 hours
Other outcomes:
Locations:
city: Philadelphia
country: United States
facility: University of Pennsylvania
state: Pennsylvania
Study officials:
affiliation: University of Pennsylvania
name: Katherine Courtright, M.D., M.S.
role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR
References:
citation: Krutsinger DC, O'Leary KL, Ellenberg SS, Cotner CE, Halpern SD, Courtright KR. A Randomized Controlled Trial of Behavioral Nudges to Improve Enrollment in Critical Care Trials. Ann Am Thorac Soc. 2020 Sep;17(9):1117-1125. doi: 10.1513/AnnalsATS.202003-194OC.