Clinical Research Directory

Ambient AI Scribe (Voa Health) in Outpatient Clinics: Draft Notes, Documentation Burden, and Well-Being

The goal of this randomized clinical trial is to learn whether an "ambient AI scribe" (Voa Health) can reduce documentation burden and improve physician well-being and patient experience in outpatient clinics. The AI scribe listens to the audio of the consultation and produces a draft of the clinical note that the physician reviews and edits. In this study, consultations are randomized to 2 groups: usual documentation (without AI) or documentation assisted by the AI scribe. Adult patients seen in participating clinics, and their physicians, are invited to take part. For both groups, the consultation audio is recorded and, at the end of the visit, physicians and patients complete short questionnaires about well-being, workload, communication, empathy, and satisfaction. The questionnaires are based on internationally used scales (such as PFI, Mini-Z, NASA-TLX, CARE, PSQ-18, and CAT) but adapted to keep them brief and feasible in routine care. The main questions are whether the AI scribe lowers the time and effort needed to document the visit, improves physician professional fulfillment and reduces burnout, and whether it affects how patients perceive the communication, empathy, and overall quality of the consultation. No drugs or devices are being tested. The results are expected to guide hospitals on the safe and effective use of ambient AI scribes in real-world clinical practice.

Improving Antibiotic Use for ARIs in Urgent Care Clinics

Many clinicians prescribe antibiotics for patients with acute respiratory infections even when antibiotics will not benefit the patient because the infection is due to a virus. To discourage this type of unnecessary antibiotic use, the investigators will assess whether it is helpful to give clinicians feedback on how often they prescribe antibiotics for respiratory infections in comparison to their peers. The investigators will perform this study across Urgent Care and QuickCare clinics within a single healthcare system.

Impact of Ambulatory Management for Primary Spontaneous Pneumothorax in the Emergency Department on Quality of Life

Outpatient treatment of Primary Spontaneous Pneumothorax (PSP) compared to usual inpatient management could improve quality of care and represent a more efficient, generalizable and sustainable strategy. This multicenter, cluster-controlled, randomized interventional study with stepped wedge implementation will evaluate the impact on quality of life (between inclusion, after drain placement, and 6 months) of an ambulatory strategy for the management of large abundance primary spontaneous pneumothorax in the emergency department, compared with usual care.

Prospective Comparative Study Evaluating the Early Complications of Robot-assisted Radical Prostatectomy Performed as an Outpatient Versus an Inpatient Procedure.

The goal of this clinical trial is to demonstrate that outpatient management for robotic-assisted radical prostatectomy is not inferior to inpatient management in terms of the occurrence of early post-operative complications. Researchers will compare outpatient robot-assisted radical prostatectomy to inpatient procedure. Participants will: * Visit the clinic after the operation once at 45 days, 6 months and once a year for up to 5 years for check-ups and tests. * Answer survey questions about urinary and erectil functions, stress and anxiety, satisfaction, quality of life for 6 months * Keep a diary to record procedures and treatments related to the care provided

Evaluation of the Hemodynamic Effect of Dexmedetomidine in Scheduled Outpatient Surgery

Ambulatory surgery is increasingly used in anesthesia. In case of general anesthesia, it is recommended to use anesthesia molecules with a short half-life and low doses of opiates to ensure a rapid awakening and to prevent nausea and vomiting by systematic administration of anti-emetics during the operation. Opiates (including sufentanil) have recently been called into question because of the nausea and vomiting and the delay in waking up induced by these molecules. To combat these side effects, the authors have proposed either to reduce the doses or to substitute them with dexmedetomidine, a sedative antihypertensive drug. Recent studies have demonstrated that opiates used in general anesthesia can be replaced by dexmedetomidine. However, literature data are controversial concerning the hemodynamic impact. No study has compared the hemodynamic profile of opioid-free anesthesia with dexmedetomidine versus conventional anesthesia with opioids. The ambulatory context lends itself to the use of dexmedetomidine because it is aimed at a population without strong cardiac pathology, concerns non-major interventions, with the need to optimize pain and side effects. The study authors therefore wish to compare the effects of induction of general anesthesia with low-dose Dexmedetomidine versus sufentanil, on post-induction hemodynamic stability in scheduled outpatient surgeries. The investigators hypothesize that hemodynamic stability at induction of general anesthesia with low-dose dexmedetomidine is not inferior to that obtained with sufentanil in scheduled ambulatory surgeries.

The Right Care, for the Right Patient, at the Right Time, by the Right Provider: A Value-based Comparison of the Management of Ambulatory Patients With Acute Health Concerns in walk-in Clinics, Primary Care Physician Practices and Emergency Departments

INTRODUCTION Whereas low-acuity ambulatory patients have been cited as a source of emergency department (ED) overuse or misuse, it is argued that patient evaluation in the ED may end up being more cost-effective. The COVID-19 pandemic has complicated the debate by shifting primary care practices (PCP) and walk-in clinics (WIC) towards telemedicine, a consultation modality presumed to be more efficient under the circumstances. OBJECTIVES To compare, from patient and healthcare system perspectives, the value of the care received in person or by telemedicine in EDs, WICs and PCPs by ambulatory patients presenting with one the following complaints: 1) Acute diarrheas; 2) Sore throat; 3) Nasal congestion; 4) Increased or purulent nasal discharge; 5) Earache or ear discharge; 6) Shortness of breath; 7) Cough; 8) Increased or purulent sputum; 9) Muscle aches; 10) Anosmia; 11) Dysgeusia; 12) Burning urine; 13) Urinary frequency and urgency; 14) Dysuria; 15) Limb traumatic injury; 16) Cervical, thoracic or lumbar back pain; and 17) Fever METHODS The investigators shall perform a multicenter prospective cohort study in Québec and Ontario. In phase 1, a time-driven activity-based costing method will be applied at each of 14 study sites. This method uses time as a cost driver to allocate direct costs (e.g. medication), consumable expenditures (e.g. needles, office supplies), overhead (e.g. building maintenance) and physician charges to patient care. The cost of a care episode thus will be proportional to the time spent receiving the care. At the end of this phase, a list of care process costs (e.g. triage, virtual medical assessment) will be generated and used to calculate the cost of each consultation during phase 2, in which a prospective cohort of patients will be monitored in order to compare the care received in EDs, WICs and PCPs. Research assistants will recruit eligible participants during the initial in-person or virtual visit. They will complete the collection using local medical records and provincial databases. Participants will be contacted by phone for follow-up questionnaires 1-3 and 8-14 days after their visit. Patients shall be aged 18 years and over, ambulatory throughout the care episode and have one of the targeted presenting complaints mentioned above. The estimated sample size is 3,906 patients. The primary outcome measurement for comparing the three types of care setting will be patient-reported outcome scores. The secondary outcome measurements will be: 1) patient-reported experience scores; 2) mean costs borne wholly by patients; 3) the proportion of return visits to any site 3 and 7 days after the initial visit; 4) the mean cost of care; 5) the incidences of mortality, hospital admissions and placement in intensive care within 30 days following the initial visit; 6) adherence to practice guidelines. Multilevel generalized linear models will be used to compare the care setting types and an overlap weights approach will be applied to adjust for confounding due to age, sex, gender, ethnicity, comorbidities, registration with a family physician, socioeconomic status and perceived severity of illness. EXPERTISE This research project brings together a strong team with expertise in emergency and primary care, pneumonology, performance assessment, biostatistics, health economics, patient-oriented research, knowledge translation, administration and policymaking. IMPORTANCE The endpoint of our program will be for policymakers, patients and care providers to be able to determine the most appropriate care setting for the management of ambulatory emergency conditions, based on the value of care associated with each alternative.