Use of Nudges To Enhance Enrollment in Critical Care Research

Completed · Not applicable

Conditions studied: Critical Illness

In brief

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.

Key facts

Study ID

NCT03284359

Run by

University of Pennsylvania

People needed

182

Starts

2018-02-19

Expected to finish

2019-08-08

Last updated by the study team

2021-03-03

Who can join

Age: 18 and older. Sex: any. Healthy volunteers: accepted.

You may qualify if…

• Surrogate decision-makers of patients who are:
• Patient and surrogate is 18 years of age or older
• Surrogate is English-proficient
• Patient is mechanically ventilated
• Patient is admitted to participating ICU

You may not qualify if…

• Surrogate decision-makers of patients who are:
• Patient is receiving comfort care only
• Patient has anticipated extubation in the next 24 hours.
• Patient with tracheostomy.
• Bedside clinician declines patient participation.
• Surrogate decision maker not available to approach prior to patient being extubated.

Where it is running

• University of Pennsylvania — Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States

Full record on ClinicalTrials.gov

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