Health TrialsbyHealthPanel

BabaCare: Testing a Care Copilot

ConditionsLonelinessMood
Trial statusRecruiting
Trial phaseNot applicable
Trial typeInterventional
Biological sexAll
Age65+
SponsorJohns Hopkins University

About this trial

Baba is a novel AI "care copilot" designed to improve emotional well-being, cognitive stimulation, and social connection through emotionally present conversations, proactive engagement, and personalized communication. Unlike many existing solutions, Baba operates through SMS text and voice calls, requiring no apps, Wi-Fi, or new devices, making it particularly accessible to older adults.

Eligibility criteria

This trial accepts healthy volunteers

Qualifiers

Lives alone

"How often in the last week did you feel that everything you did was an effort?"

"How often in the last week did you feel that you could not get going?"

Willingness and ability to regularly engage with Baba for 12 weeks

Disqualifiers

Significant cognitive impairment that prevents consent or participation

Inability to communicate via SMS or phone

Severe hearing or speech impairment precluding use of voice interaction

Trial design

Design model

Single group

Treatments tested in this trial

  • AI phone companion

    Other intervention

    Baba uses a fine-tuned large language model to hold conversations with older adults and analyze tone, sentiment shifts, and emotional cues. The system logs call summaries and risk flags for caregiver review and tracks changes over time.

Treatment groups

40 Participants
are divided into 1 treatment group
Group A: Receives calls from BABAExperimental treatment 1 intervention

Trial outcomes

Primary outcomes

1

Loneliness as assessed by the UCLA Loneliness Scale

Pre- and post-pilot assessments will measure changes in self-reported loneliness (UCLA Loneliness Scale). Score range 20-80, higher score worse loneliness.

Time frame
12 weeks
2

Mood as assessed by the Patient Health Questionnare (PHQ-9)

Pre- and post-pilot assessments will measure changes in self-reported mood (PHQ-9 or GDS). Total score range 0 to 27, with higher score indicating more severe depressive symptoms

Time frame
12 weeks
3

Mood as assessed by the Geriatric Depression scale (GDS)

Pre- and post-pilot assessments will measure changes in self-reported mood Total score range 0-15, with higher score indicating worse depression. A score ≥ 5 typically suggests depression.

Time frame
12 weeks

Secondary outcomes

Other outcomes

Sponsors and contacts

Click on the lead sponsor to view all of their trials.

Johns Hopkins University

Lead sponsor

National Institute on Aging (NIA)

Collaborator

Baba Care, Inc.

Collaborator

Source ClinicalTrials.gov
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