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ECA-enhanced Document Explanation RCT

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Northeastern University

Status

Enrolling

Conditions

Healthy

Treatments

Other: Embodied Conversational Agent (ECA)

Study type

Interventional

Funder types

Other

Identifiers

Details and patient eligibility

About

The investigators will evaluate a computer-animated character that explains medical illustrations to people, comparing the character to having people understand the illustrations on their own, and also comparing the computer character on a computer display to one in immersive virtual reality. The investigators will determine which method leads to the best understanding and lowest anxiety.

Full description

The investigators are developing a new approach to explaining patient education documents and illustrations to patients with varying levels of health literacy, involving the use of Embodied Conversational Agents (ECAs). The investigators will evaluate our ECA-augmented Document Explanation tool to determine whether it improves patient learning relative to traditional static patient education documents. The investigators will conduct a 3-arm randomized between-subjects experiment, in which participants read a patient education document with embedded medical illustration, either unaided (CONTROL), with the assistance of an ECA rendered in 2D on a standard computer monitor (ECA-2D), or with the assistance of an ECA in immersive Virtual Reality (ECA-3D).

Enrollment

300 estimated patients

Sex

All

Ages

18+ years old

Volunteers

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

  • Over 18 years old
  • Speaks English or Spanish fluently
  • Is able to independently consent
  • Has adequate corrected vision to read patient education documents

Exclusion criteria

* None

Trial design

Primary purpose

Other

Allocation

Randomized

Interventional model

Parallel Assignment

Masking

Single Blind

300 participants in 3 patient groups

ECA-2D
Experimental group
Description:
Participants read a patient education document with the assistance of an embodied conversational agent rendered in 2D on a computer monitor.
Treatment:
Other: Embodied Conversational Agent (ECA)
ECA-3D
Experimental group
Description:
Participants read a patient education document with the assistance of an embodied conversational agent in virtual reality.
Treatment:
Other: Embodied Conversational Agent (ECA)
CONTROL
No Intervention group
Description:
Participants read a patient education document without assistance.

Trial contacts and locations

2

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Central trial contact

Timothy Bickmore, PhD

Data sourced from clinicaltrials.gov

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