Intern Health Study 2026 (IHS 2026)

June 29, 2026 updated by: Srijan Sen, University of Michigan
The aim of this study is to evaluate the efficacy of using a reinforcement learning algorithm to determine the optimal content of a mobile health intervention (message delivered via smartphone) for improving the mood, physical activity, and sleep of medical interns.

Study Overview

Status

Enrolling by invitation

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Detailed Description

Due to their high workloads, less sleep and physical activity and other stressors, medical interns suffer from depression at higher rates than the general population. The goal of this study is to evaluate the efficacy of a mobile health intervention intending to help prevent the degradation of health behaviors and the development of depression. The intervention sends mobile phone notifications which aim to help interns improve their mood, maintain physical activity, and obtain adequate sleep during their internship year. A reinforcement learning algorithm will use prior survey, daily mood, and wearable data to decide each day whether to send a message or not.

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Estimated)

1000

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
    • Michigan
      • Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States, 48375
        • University of Michigan

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

Yes

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Medical intern during the 2026-2027 internship year
  • iPhone or Android phone user

Exclusion Criteria:

  • None

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

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Within-participant micro-randomization
Each week a policy outcome is chosen at random with ⅓ mood, ⅓ activity, ⅓ sleep - this determines which category of message a participant will receive. Each day in the study, a reinforcement learning algorithm will determine if a participant will receive a notification that day or no notification that day. If assigned to receive a notification, 1 core message set will be randomly selected from a pool of 358 core message sets. Each core message set will be comprised of 4 messages containing comparable content, however they will be tailored based on the participant's wearable (steps, sleep) or mood data for the specified time interval (7 days, 30 days, since the start of internship) as follows: 1) no data, 2) low, 3) moderate, or 4) high.
Behavioral: Intern Health Study behavioral change mobile notification
The study's mobile app will be used to deliver push notifications. The notifications appear on the participant's phone lock screen. The notifications include 3 categories: mood notifications, activity notifications, sleep notifications. Mood notifications aim to increase the participant's mood. Activity notifications aim to increase the participant's physical activity. Sleep notifications aim to increase the participant's sleep duration. All notifications are categorized as one of five therapeutic approaches: 1) CBT-Behavioral, 2) CBT-Cognitive, 3) Distanced Self-Talk, 4) Mindfulness, 5) Motivational Interviewing.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Average daily mood
Time Frame: Daily, through study completion at the end of intern year (1 year)
Through the mobile app, participants enter a mood score (scale 1 - 10) every day of the study. 1 corresponds to lowest mood and 10 corresponds to highest mood.
Daily, through study completion at the end of intern year (1 year)
Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9)
Time Frame: Quarterly (every 3 months for 1 year)
Prior to the start of the intervention and at quarterly intervals throughout internship year, all participants complete the Patient Health Questionnaire 9. High scores on the PHQ-9 correspond to a larger number of depressive symptoms.
Quarterly (every 3 months for 1 year)
Average daily step count
Time Frame: Daily, through study completion at the end of intern year (1 year)
Participant's daily step counts are recorded through a fitness tracker. High step counts are considered a positive outcome as it indicates more physical activity.
Daily, through study completion at the end of intern year (1 year)
Average nightly sleep duration
Time Frame: Daily, through study completion at the end of intern year (1 year)
Participant's nightly sleep duration (in minutes) is recorded through a fitness tracker. High sleep duration is considered a positive outcome.
Daily, through study completion at the end of intern year (1 year)

Collaborators and Investigators

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

Sponsor

University of Michigan

Publications and helpful links

The person responsible for entering information about the study voluntarily provides these publications. These may be about anything related to the study.

Helpful Links

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)

April 14, 2026

Primary Completion (Estimated)

June 30, 2027

Study Completion (Estimated)

June 30, 2027

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

June 29, 2026

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

June 29, 2026

First Posted (Actual)

July 6, 2026

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

July 6, 2026

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

June 29, 2026

Last Verified

June 1, 2026

More Information

Terms related to this study

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • HUM00033029.26

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?

YES

IPD Plan Description

De-identified survey data (baseline survey, plus quarterly survey which contains the PHQ-9) will be shared via the ICPSR repository (https://www.openicpsr.org/openicpsr/project/129225/version/V1/view).

IPD Sharing Time Frame

Data will be made available 12 months after the end of the study It will be made available indefinitely after that date.

IPD Sharing Access Criteria

Deidentified data will be publicly available via ICPSR https://www.openicpsr.org/openicpsr/project/129225/version/V1/view

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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