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Completed

NCT Number: NCT07598721

Ambient AI Clinical Trial

This is a single-site pragmatic randomized control trial studying the effect of ambient artificial intelligence (AI) scribes on the delivery of medical care to patients in the ambulatory setting. The study will last 150 days and include up to 65 providers in the intervention group. Providers will be recruited from three medical specialties, including primary care, oncology, and urology. The study will enroll providers and randomize them to an intervention group (access to the ambient AI scribe product) or a control group (routine patient care). Providers will be evaluated for burnout and task load measures through digital surveys at the beginning, middle, and end of the study. Provider electronic health record (EHR) usage data will also be evaluated for time spent documenting, time spent after hours on days with scheduled clinical care, and time between the start of the clinical encounter and signing it.

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Key information

Conditions

Artificial Intelligence (AI) Behavior Behavioral Symptoms Burnout, Psychological Neoplasms Physician Burnout Physician Work Environment Stress, Psychological

Age range

18 year and older

Sex eligibility

All sexes

Study type

Interventional

Phase

Not applicable

Primary location

University of Washington Medical Center

Seattle, Washington, 98195, United States

Who can participate

Healthy volunteers accepted: No

Only the study team can determine whether someone qualifies for participation.

Inclusion criteria

  • Provider is an employee of the University of Washington Medicine.
  • Clinical specialty of primary care, oncology, or urology.
  • Clinical full-time equivalent (FTE) of 0.2 or greater (provider must have an outpatient clinic of at least 20% of an FTE).
  • Provider is a physician or an advanced practice provider.

Exclusion criteria

  • Trainees (e.g., medical students, residents, or fellows)
  • Provider does not have access to a mobile device that is compatible with the ambient AI scribe service (e.g., Android mobile phone).

Treatment and study plan

Use of Ambient AI scribe tool on participant's mobile device

Other

Ambient artificial intelligence (AI) scribes are a clinical documentation tool that uses automated speech recognition and large-scale language models to capture and transcribe synchronous patient-provider encounters in real time. Clinicians then review, edit, and authorize the AI-generated text before finalizing the chart, ensuring necessary human oversight and medical accuracy. In this study, participants used Ambient AI scribes on mobile devices for the recordings.

The ambient AI scribe will be available for the provider to use in the outpatient setting. They were not required to use the Ambient AI scribe, but could choose whether to use it and with which patients. Consent to use the device was documented for all patient encounters.

Other names: Abridge

Primary outcomes

  1. Professional Fulfillment Index (PFI)

    Time frame: Surveyed at enrollment (day 0 of pilot), midpoint (day 75), and end of pilot (day 150)

    Change in professional fulfillment and burnout, measured using the Professional Fulfillment Index (PFI), a validated 16-item self-report questionnaire. The instrument comprises three subscales: Professional Fulfillment (6 items), Work Exhaustion (4 items), and Interpersonal Disengagement (6 items). Items are rated on a 5-point Likert scale (0 = "Not at all true" / "Not at all" to 4 = "Completely true" / "Extremely"). Subscale scores are calculated as the mean of constituent items. Unit of measure: mean subscale score (range 0-4) and overall burnout score (mean of Work Exhaustion and Interpersonal Disengagement subscales, range 0-4).

  2. Mean Score on NASA Task Load Index (NASA-TLX)

    Time frame: Surveyed at enrollment (day 0 of pilot), midpoint (day 75), and end of pilot (day 150)

    Change in perceived workload, measured using the NASA Task Load Index (NASA-TLX), a validated multidimensional self-report questionnaire. The instrument comprises six subscales: Mental Demand, Physical Demand, Temporal Demand, Performance, Effort, and Frustration. Each subscale is rated on a 0-100 scale in 5-point increments. Unit of measure: subscale score (range 0-100) and overall workload score, calculated as the unweighted mean of the six subscales (range 0-100). Higher scores indicate greater perceived task workload associated with clinical documentation.

  3. Ambient AI scribe utilization rate (%)

    Time frame: Through study completion, up to 150 days after the start of the pilot.

    Percentage of clinical encounters in which the provider used the Abridge ambient AI scribe, measured using Abridge platform usage logs cross-referenced with electronic health record (EHR) encounter data. Unit of measure: utilization rate, calculated as (number of encounters in which Abridge was used divided by the total number of clinical encounters during the same period). This fraction is then represented as a percentage (range 0-100%) and aggregated monthly by provider.

Secondary outcomes

  1. Time Spent in the Electronic Health Record on Clinical Note Documentation (Minutes)

    Time frame: Through study completion, up to 150 days after the start of the pilot.

    Time spent by the provider in the electronic health record on clinical note documentation activities, measured using EHR audit log data (e.g., Epic Signal Provider Efficiency Profile). Unit of measure: minutes per scheduled clinic day on note documentation, normalized to clinical workload (clinical Full-Time Equivalent), and aggregated in 4-week windows per provider. No patient information will be collected for this outcome measure.

  2. Time spent in the electronic health record outside of working hours

    Time frame: Through study completion, up to 150 days after the start of the pilot.

    Time spent by the provider in the electronic health record outside of scheduled clinic/working hours (commonly referred to as "work outside of work" or "pajama time"), measured using EHR audit log data (e.g., Epic Signal Provider Efficiency Profile). Unit of measure: minutes per scheduled clinic day spent in the EHR outside of working hours, normalized to clinical workload and aggregated in 4-week windows per provider. No patient information will be collected for this outcome measure.

Sponsors and collaborators

Lead sponsor

University of Washington

Other

Registry information

Official study title

Evaluation of Abridge Ambient AI Technology Regarding Provider Burnout and Patient Satisfaction With the Clinical Encounter

Important dates

Study start
2024
Primary completion
2025
Study completion
2025
First posted
May 20, 2026
Registry last updated
May 28, 2026

OpenTrials presents study information sourced from ClinicalTrials.gov. The official registry record should be consulted for the latest information.

View the official ClinicalTrials.gov record (opens in a new tab)

This listing is for discovery and informational purposes only. It is not medical advice, does not guarantee that a study is recruiting, and does not determine eligibility. Contact the study team and a qualified healthcare professional when considering participation.

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