BabaCare: Testing a Care Copilot (Baba)

July 1, 2026 updated by: Johns Hopkins University
Baba is a novel AI "care copilot" designed to improve emotional well-being, cognitive stimulation, and social connection through emotionally present conversations, proactive engagement, and personalized communication. Unlike many existing solutions, Baba operates through SMS text and voice calls, requiring no apps, Wi-Fi, or new devices, making it particularly accessible to older adults.

Study Overview

Status

Recruiting

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Detailed Description

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the feasibility, usability, and preliminary impact of the Baba platform among older adults. This study will examine how older adults interact with Baba, how it integrates into the older adult's daily lives, and whether it contributes to improvements in well-being, cognitive engagement, and self-management. Findings will inform the feasibility of AI companions in supporting independent aging.

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Estimated)

40

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

  • Name: JACQUELINE M LANGDON, M.S.
  • Phone Number: 410-550-2052
  • Email: jlangdon@jhmi.edu

Study Contact Backup

  • Name: Peter M Abadir, M.D.
  • Phone Number: 410-550-0576
  • Email: pabadir1@jh.edu

Study Locations

  • United States
    • Maryland
      • Baltimore, Maryland, United States, 21224
        • Recruiting
        • Johns Hopkins Bayview Campus
        • Contact:
        • Contact:

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

  • Older Adult

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Lives alone

  • Responds "occasionally" or "most" to the exhaustion questionnaire:

    1. "How often in the last week did you feel that everything you did was an effort?"
    2. "How often in the last week did you feel that you could not get going?"
  • Willingness and ability to regularly engage with Baba for 12 weeks

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Significant cognitive impairment that prevents consent or participation
  • Inability to communicate via SMS or phone
  • Severe hearing or speech impairment precluding use of voice interaction

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

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Receives calls from BABA
Participants will receive daily or near-daily AI calls over a 12 week period.
Other: AI phone companion
Baba uses a fine-tuned large language model to hold conversations with older adults and analyze tone, sentiment shifts, and emotional cues. The system logs call summaries and risk flags for caregiver review and tracks changes over time.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Loneliness as assessed by the UCLA Loneliness Scale
Time Frame: 12 weeks
Pre- and post-pilot assessments will measure changes in self-reported loneliness (UCLA Loneliness Scale). Score range 20-80, higher score worse loneliness.
12 weeks
Mood as assessed by the Patient Health Questionnare (PHQ-9)
Time Frame: 12 weeks
Pre- and post-pilot assessments will measure changes in self-reported mood (PHQ-9 or GDS). Total score range 0 to 27, with higher score indicating more severe depressive symptoms
12 weeks
Mood as assessed by the Geriatric Depression scale (GDS)
Time Frame: 12 weeks
Pre- and post-pilot assessments will measure changes in self-reported mood Total score range 0-15, with higher score indicating worse depression. A score ≥ 5 typically suggests depression.
12 weeks

Collaborators and Investigators

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

Sponsor

Johns Hopkins University

Collaborators

National Institute on Aging (NIA)
Baba Care, Inc.

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: Peter M Abadir, M.D., Johns Hopkins University

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.

General Publications

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 (Estimated)

July 1, 2026

Primary Completion (Estimated)

June 1, 2027

Study Completion (Estimated)

June 1, 2027

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

July 1, 2026

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

July 1, 2026

First Posted (Actual)

July 8, 2026

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

July 8, 2026

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

July 1, 2026

Last Verified

July 1, 2026

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Other Study ID Numbers

  • IRB00533251
  • P30AG073104 (U.S. NIH Grant/Contract)

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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