Original Medical Notes Versus AI Plain-Language Summaries
Trial statusNot yet recruiting
Trial phaseNot applicable
Trial typeInterventional
Biological sexAll
Age18-89
SponsorUniversity of Texas at Austin
About this trial
The goal of this clinical trial is to learn how patients feel when reading their medical notes. The study compares reading the original doctor's note with reading a simpler, Artificial Intelligence (AI)-generated version written in plain language in adults receiving musculoskeletal specialty care.
The main questions the study aims to answer are:
1. Does reading a plain-language summary change how patients feel about their doctor or their clinic experience? 2. Does the type of note affect how comfortable, reassured, or worried patients feel?
Researchers will compare patients who read their original clinic note with patients who read an Artificial Intelligence (AI)-generated plain-language summary to see whether simpler language changes patient understanding, trust, or emotional responses.
Participants will:
* Read either their original clinic note or a plain-language summary of the note * Complete short questionnaires about their experience, emotions, and trust in their clinician * Optionally provide written comments about how it felt to read the information
Eligibility criteria
This trial does not accept healthy volunteersQualifiers
Adult (18-89)
Seeking outpatient musculoskeletal specialty care
English language literacy
Return patient to the clinic
Disqualifiers
None
Trial design
Design model
Parallel
Treatments tested in this trial
LLM-Generated Medical Note
BehavioralThe intervention consists of presenting participants with an LLM-generated plain-language summary of a prior musculoskeletal clinic note. The summary will be produced from a curated version of the original documentation after removal of all protected health information (PHI), macros, and administrative content. Physical therapy notes will be excluded, and normal examination or imaging findings may be simplified (e.g., "Exam otherwise normal"). The LLM will be instructed to preserve clinical meaning while reducing jargon and improving readability. The summary will be concise, neutral in tone, and written in patient-friendly language without adding new medical information or altering clinical recommendations. The specific LLM platform is not yet finalized but will likely use the most current version of ChatGPT and/or Perplexity available through institutional access.
Control (Original Medical Note)
BehavioralParticipants randomized to the control arm will review the original clinical note from their prior musculoskeletal clinic visit. The note will be presented in its original format without language simplification. Participants will review the note on an iPad prior to their clinic visit and complete questionnaires assessing trust, experience, and emotional responses.
Treatment groups
135 Participants
are divided into 2 treatment groupsGroup A: Intervention (LLM-simplified notes)Experimental treatment 1 intervention
Group B: Control (Original medical note)Active comparator 1 intervention
Trial outcomes
Primary outcomes
1
Trust and Experience with the Clinician Scale (TRECS-7)
The Trust and Experience with the Clinician Scale (TRECS-7) is a validated 7-item scale that measures patients' trust in and experience with their clinician during a medical consultation. Designed to minimize ceiling effects, it enables more sensitive detection of variation in patient experience across different clinical interactions (Brinkman et al.). Each of 7 statements is scored from 0-4 (strongly disagree, disagree, neutral, agree, strongly agree), resulting in a total score between 0 and 28. Higher scores indicate greater perceived trust in the clinician. Source: Brinkman N, Looman R, Jayakumar P, Ring D, Choi S. Is It Possible to Develop a Patient-reported Experience Measure With Lower Ceiling Effect? Clin Orthop Relat Res. 2025 Apr 1;483(4):693-703. Time Frame: Measured once, immediately following consultation with the musculoskeletal specialist
Time frame
Immediately after visitSecondary outcomes
1
Emotional response to medical note
Emotional responses to viewing one's own medical record will be assessed using 0-100 sliding scales measuring emotional comfort, anxiety, perceived clinician caring, and perceived impact on communication with the clinician. Higher or lower scores will reflect participants' position between paired emotional anchors including sad/happy, worried/at ease, doctor is caring/doctor is not caring, uncomfortable/comfortable, and affects communication/does not affect communication.
Time frame
Immediately after intervention2
Themes identified by the LLM in verbatim text
Themes identified from participant verbatim comments regarding their experience reading the study material. Participants will respond to the free-text prompt: "How did you feel reading your medical records before the visit with the clinician? (Please elaborate)" Responses will be analyzed using a large language model (LLM) to identify recurring themes related to understanding, emotional reactions, perceived trust, clarity of information, comfort or distress, and anticipated impact on communication with the clinician.
Time frame
Collected immediately after intervention/controlLocations
Sponsors and contacts
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Source ClinicalTrials.gov
This trial is not recruiting at the moment. You can still explore other options: