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

Rush University Medical Center27 enrolled

Overview

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.

Study Type

INTERVENTIONAL

Allocation

Purpose

HEALTH_SERVICES_RESEARCH

Masking

NONE

Enrollment

Conditions

Communication ICU

Interventions

Eligibility

Sex: ALLMin age: 18 Years

Medical Language ↔ Plain English

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

Outcomes

Primary Outcomes

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)

Time frame: 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)

Time frame: 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)