Clinical Research Directory

Comparing Original Patient Educational Materials vs. AI-Simplified Materials to Improve Patient Comprehension and Health Literacy

Poor health literacy and patient comprehension have been associated with adverse health outcomes. Patient educational materials (PEMs) are articles that are intended to assist patients in their understanding of a given medical condition. Given that the average American adult reads at the 8th grade level, the American Medical Association and the Center for Disease Control recommend PEM be written at the 6th grade level. However, literature has found the majority of PEMs to be written significantly higher than the 8th grade level. In order to improve their readability, a number of studies have displayed the effectiveness of large language models (LLMs) such as ChatGPT to simplify the text of a given PEM. Despite the improvement in readability, the effectiveness of these simplified PEMs on improving patient comprehension of the AI augmented material has yet to be investigated. The purpose of our study is to test whether the improvement in readability found in AI-simplified PEMs corresponds to a greater understanding of the material compared to the original PEM. Understanding if AI-simplified PEM truly improves comprehension could further support this use case for AI and aid providers and healthcare organizations in improving the health literacy of their patients. This study aims to answer the following question: Do AI simplified PEMs improve the comprehension of pediatric orthopaedic conditions? Researchers will compare AI-simplified PEMs to their original, unmodified counterparts in order to see if there is any difference in post reading comprehension of the participants. Participation in the study will include: * A brief baseline survey (e.g. demographics and educational attainment) * A randomly assigned reading of either the original PEM or the AI simplified version. * A 10 question post-reading multiple choice quiz

Patient-centered Precision Medicine Lab Result Communication for Older Adults

For adults ≥65 years and their providers, the investigators will test the usability and design of a tool to replace standard uniform reporting of lab results to patients and their providers with a new personalized Electronic Health Record (EHR) lab result communication tool that: 1) extracts patient-level data from the EHR; 2) calculates individual risk; and 3) for patients with very low risk, communicates the individualized risk information. The investigators will employ a range of User Experience (UX) research methods to understand how patient and provider users interact with the new lab result communication tool and to assess their comprehension of the lab results. This study will be conducted with both patient and provider participants. The patient participant portion of this study uses a four-arm, design to evaluate three newly designed laboratory result communication template reports compared with the current standard (control) communication. The provider participant portion of this study is non-randomized; all provider participants will review all four template reports. This will include live semi-structured interviews with the participants and review of the template report(s) of the Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD) lab result communication tool. An anonymous in-person template report feedback survey will be provided to the participants to gauge their understanding of the template report(s), clarity of the information presented, and overall satisfaction with the tool. This will be a single-visit interaction with the participant in the UCLA Health geriatric or general medicine patient waiting room.