Virtual Nephrologist (vHCA)

January 9, 2026 updated by: University of Pennsylvania

An Interactive, Conversational Virtual Healthcare Agent to Educate and Engage Patients With Advanced Chronic Kidney Disease About Transplantation (Part 2: Pilot)

To develop, pilot, and refine a virtual healthcare agent that will educate patients with advanced chronic kidney disease and their caregivers about kidney transplantation.

Study Overview

Status

Completed

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Detailed Description

Over 35 million Americans endure the burdens of chronic kidney disease (CKD). Black Americans face particularly high rates of CKD due to environmental and genetic factors, including systemic racism and inadequate access to specialty providers and effective therapies. The optimal management of advanced CKD poses many challenges for patients, especially those with low health literacy, because of the complexity of medical management and treatment options. For many patients with advanced CKD, pursuing kidney transplantation has major advantages. Compared to chronic dialysis, kidney transplantation improves quality of life and length of life, and offers greater capacity to participate in important activities such as employment. Unfortunately, many patients do not gain sufficient information about kidney transplant or have misconceptions and fears about transplant. This knowledge gap exists in part because many patients have limited access to nephrology care and due to time constraints and ineffective education during nephrology visits. New media technologies can address this need by enabling patients to interact with a virtual health care assistant that both empowers patients to direct the communication toward their own information needs and communicates with patients using language and norms that are comfortable. The study team will develop a virtual healthcare assistant to interact with, educate and counsel patients and their caregivers about kidney transplantation. The tool will provide content developed by the National Kidney Foundation, the leading patient-facing organization focused on kidney disease. Informed by patient partnerships, the tool will address in particular the needs and concerns of Black Americans with kidney disease.

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

148

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 Locations

  • United States
    • Pennsylvania
      • Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States, 19104
        • Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania
    • Tennessee
      • Nashville, Tennessee, United States, 37232
        • Vanderbilt University Medical Center

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:

  • 18 y/o able to provide consent
  • Advanced CKD
  • English speaking
  • Penn Medicine patient

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Vulnerable populations

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: Diagnostic
  • Allocation: N/A
  • Interventional Model: Single Group Assignment
  • Masking: None (Open Label)

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Virtual Nephrologist
Other: Virtual Nephrologist
Quality improvement (QI) pilot of an interactive, conversational virtual healthcare agent to educate and engage patients with advanced CKD about transplantation

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Median change in Transplant intention Likert scale question from pre- to post-vHCA
Time Frame: 1 year
Assess the change in intentionally to consider/discuss getting a kidney transplant using 5-point Likert scale survey
1 year

Collaborators and Investigators

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

Sponsor

University of Pennsylvania

Collaborators

University of Florida
Vanderbilt University Medical Center

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)

March 26, 2024

Primary Completion (Actual)

July 14, 2025

Study Completion (Actual)

December 31, 2025

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

February 10, 2025

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

February 19, 2025

First Posted (Actual)

February 21, 2025

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Estimated)

January 12, 2026

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

January 9, 2026

Last Verified

January 1, 2026

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • 855462

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

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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