Behavioral Economics Applications to Geriatrics Leveraging EHRs

NCT03704389 · Status: COMPLETED · Phase: NA · Type: INTERVENTIONAL · Enrollment: 664

Last updated 2025-10-07

Study results available
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Summary

The risks and benefits of many diagnostic approaches and treatments differ for older adults compared to middle aged adults. When diagnostic and therapeutic strategies are misapplied to older adults this can lead to increased morbidity and mortality. Well established examples where clinicians do not often follow best practices in the care of older adults include those identified by the American Geriatrics Society for the Choosing Wisely initiative: 1) testing and treatment for asymptomatic bacteriuria, 2) prostate specific antigen testing in older men without prostate cancer, and 3) overuse of insulin or oral hypoglycemics for type 2 diabetes.

Clinical decision support nudges, informed by social psychology and delivered via electronic health records (EHRs), are promising strategies to reduce the misuse of services in cases where optimal utilization may not be zero but should be well below current practice. These interventions seek to influence conscious and unconscious drivers of clinical decision making, are low cost to implement and disseminate, and can be incorporated into existing delivery systems. In the R21 phase of this Behavioral Economics Applications to Geriatrics Leveraging EHRs (BEAGLE) study, we will: select EHR delivered nudges to address 3 topics of potential misuse in older adults based on the main psychological drivers of overuse identified in interviews with high-using clinicians; develop and pilot test decision support tools within a health systems' EHR to understand technical feasibility, work flow fit, preliminary impact on clinical outcomes, and clinician acceptability; and develop and validate electronic clinical quality measures of potential overuse/misuse related to the care of older adults.

Conditions

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

Clinical decision support

Clinical decision support nudges within the electronic health record

Sponsors & Collaborators

Study Design

Allocation
NA
Purpose
HEALTH_SERVICES_RESEARCH
Masking
NONE
Model
SINGLE_GROUP

Eligibility

Min Age
18 Years
Sex
ALL
Healthy Volunteers
No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start
2019-01-17
Primary Completion
2019-07-17
Completion
2019-08-18

Countries

  • United States

Study Locations

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Entities

Read the full study record

This page highlights key information. For complete eligibility criteria, study locations, investigator contacts, and the full protocol, visit the original record on ClinicalTrials.gov.

View NCT03704389 on ClinicalTrials.gov