The Family-ICU Trial (Family-ICU)

March 25, 2026 updated by: Michael Goldfarb, Lady Davis Institute

Family Participation in Intensive Care Unit Rounds (The Family-ICU Trial)

Family inclusion in adult intensive care unit (ICU) rounds is recommended by critical care professional societies, yet widespread uptake of this practice is limited. A key barrier cited by ICU clinicians is insufficient evidence to support this practice. There is a need for robust evidence to support family participation in adult ICU rounds and influence change to routine clinical care. The primary purpose of this study is to assess whether family participation in adult ICU rounds improves family engagement in care. The secondary objectives are to assess family satisfaction, and anxiety and depression, to explore user experiences of family participation in ICU rounds, and to evaluate strategies to improve family member recruitment and retention rates. This is a stepped-wedge cluster randomized trial (n=194) at 6 Canadian ICUs. The stepped wedge cluster randomized trial is a pragmatic study design that overcomes methodological limitations in evaluating a healthcare service delivery intervention. In the stepped-wedge cluster design, there is random and sequential crossover of clusters from control (phase 1) to intervention (phase 2) until all clusters are exposed. The stepped-wedge design also allows each site to function as its own control. The stepped-wedge design is more powerful than a parallel design when substantial cluster level effects are present.

Study Overview

Status

Recruiting

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Estimated)

194

Phase

  • Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Contact

Study Locations

  • Canada
    • Quebec
      • Montreal, Quebec, Canada
        • Recruiting
        • Jewish General Hospital
        • Contact:
        • Principal Investigator:
          • Michael J Goldfarb, MD, MSc
      • Montreal, Quebec, Canada
        • Not yet recruiting
        • McGill University Health Centre
        • Contact:
        • Principal Investigator:
          • Michael J Goldfarb, MD, MSc

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

  • Adult
  • Older Adult

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Adult family members (age ≥ 18 years) of ICU patients
  • Expected ICU stay ≥ 48 hours
  • Family members wishing to participate in rounds virtually must have the technological capability and understanding to participate virtually (must have a phone or computer with internet and audio/video capabilities)

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Family members who do not wish to participate in care
  • Repeat admissions within the study period
  • Another family member has already participated in the study

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: Health Services Research
  • Allocation: Randomized
  • Interventional Model: Crossover Assignment
  • Masking: Double

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
No Intervention: Phase 1 (Control group)
Participants will be able to engage in care as per current family engagement practices. Family members in the usual care group will not participate in daily ICU rounds. In-person or virtual family participation in rounds is not routinely performed at any of the trial sites.
Experimental: Phase 2 (Intervention)
Participants in the Intervention group will be invited to participate in attending team rounds.
Other: Participation in attending team rounds
Family members can participate both in-person and virtually, which can vary daily if desired. If the family member wishes to participate in-person, they will be invited to be present when the team rounds in the ICU. If the family member wishes to participate virtually, they will be provided with a personalized link by email to attend rounds.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
FAMily Engagement (FAME) score within 1 week of ICU discharge
Time Frame: 1-week post-hospital discharge
The FAMily Engagement (FAME) tool is a self-administered 12-item questionnaire that assesses an individual's current engagement practice. FAME uses a five-point Likert scale ranging from 1 (strongly agree) to 5 (strongly disagree), and scale results are changed to a 0-100 scoring system, with higher scores indicating greater engagement in care. The following subdomains are evaluated: engagement perception, family presence, communication, education, decision-making, care contribution, and family needs. FAME includes the following engagement domains: family presence, family needs, communication and education, decision making, and direct care. FAME also captures the following family-centered care principles: dignity and respect, information sharing, participation, and collaboration.
1-week post-hospital discharge
Quality of communication (QOC score)
Time Frame: 1-week post-hospital discharge
The Quality of Communication tool is a 13-item questionnaire that was developed and validated in an ICU setting to measure the perceived quality of communication. Scores range from 0 to 100, with higher scores indicating better clinician-family communication.
1-week post-hospital discharge

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Anxiety and depression (HADS)
Time Frame: 6 months post-hospital discharge
The Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) is a simple to use, validated, and widely used self-reported tool to measure anxiety and depression in medical patients. The survey is composed of 14 questions: 7 depression-related and 7 anxiety-related questions. The score for each item ranges from 0 to 3, and subscale scores greater than 8 denotes anxiety or depression.
6 months post-hospital discharge
Anxiety and depression (HADS)
Time Frame: 1-week post-hospital discharge
The Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) is a simple to use, validated, and widely used self-reported tool to measure anxiety and depression in medical patients. The survey is composed of 14 questions: 7 depression-related and 7 anxiety-related questions. The score for each item ranges from 0 to 3, and subscale scores greater than 8 denotes anxiety or depression.
1-week post-hospital discharge
Post-traumatic stress (IES-Revised)
Time Frame: 6 months post-hospital discharge
The IES-Revised is a 22-item questionnaire that has been validated and is widely used for measuring post-traumatic stress symptoms and yields a total score ranging from 0 to 88 and subscale scores for the Intrusion, Avoidance, and Hyperarousal subscales. Items are rated on a 5-point scale ranging from 0 (not at all) to 4 (extremely). High scores indicate greater severity of PTSD.
6 months post-hospital discharge
Family satisfaction in the ICU (FS-ICU)
Time Frame: 1-week post-hospital discharge
The Family Satisfaction in the ICU survey (FS-ICU) is a 24-item instrument that was developed and validated to assess family satisfaction and experience with care in the ICU. Scores range from 0 to 100, with higher scores indicate greater satisfaction.
1-week post-hospital discharge
Quality of life (EuroQOL-5D-5L score)
Time Frame: 6 months post-hospital discharge
The EuroQOL-5D-5L is a 5-item questionnaire that has been validated and is widely used for measuring health-related quality of life. Each dimension has five response levels: no problems (Level 1); slight; moderate; severe; and extreme problems (Level 5). The scores are combined to generate a single index value for overall health status. EQ-5D-5L index scores range from -0.59 to 1, where 1 is the best possible health state
6 months post-hospital discharge

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

Lady Davis Institute

Collaborators

Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR)

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: Michael J Goldfarb, MD, MSc, Lady Davis Institute, McGill University, Jewish General Hospital

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start (Actual)

November 18, 2024

Primary Completion (Estimated)

February 1, 2028

Study Completion (Estimated)

July 1, 2029

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

September 4, 2024

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

September 4, 2024

First Posted (Actual)

September 19, 2024

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

March 31, 2026

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

March 25, 2026

Last Verified

March 1, 2026

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Other Study ID Numbers

  • 2025-4182

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?

NO

Drug and device information, study documents

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product

No

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product

No

product manufactured in and exported from the U.S.

No

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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