Social Robots Empowering Patients

July 11, 2026 updated by: Melissa Simon, Northwestern University

Social Robots for Enhancing Older Adults' Digital Literacy

The purpose of this study is to evaluate whether a social robot can effectively support digital-literacy learning among low-income Chinese immigrants, particularly in the context of using the MyChart health portal. The study aims to understand whether robot-guided digital literacy education leads to improved engagement, comprehension, and confidence compared to a standard educational video.

Study Overview

Status

Active, not recruiting

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Detailed Description

This project aims to develop a social robot that can enhance digital literacy of low-income Chinese immigrants in the Chicago area to enhance their health literacy and health management skills.

As healthcare systems are increasingly becoming digitalized (e.g., patient portals and digital technologies to facilitate appointment scheduling, health tracking, medication adherence, and billing), engagement with technology has become increasingly important in healthcare, and it is important for patients to acquire digital literacy to effectively engage with digital health tools to access healthcare. Yet, many people, especially those who also experience a language barrier, experience challenges in navigating these digital health technologies to access appropriate care. Specifically, low-income Chinese immigrants experience barriers in accessing health information due to their low digital literacy, since most hospitals/clinics use digitized tools (e.g., MyChart health portal) to inform patients about their health records and to communicate with patients.

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

50

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
    • Illinois
      • Chicago, Illinois, United States, 60611
        • Northwestern University

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:

  • Age: 18 years or older
  • Race: Self-identified as Chinese
  • Zip codes: Reside in one of the eight Chicago zip codes corresponding to Chinatown's geographical boundaries
  • Language: Speak Cantonese, Mandarin, or Taishanese fluently

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Prior experience using the MyChart mobile app.
  • Inability to communicate in Mandarin, Cantonese, or Taishanese, sufficiently to complete consent or study tasks.

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: Other
  • Allocation: Randomized
  • Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
  • Masking: None (Open Label)

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Other: Robot-guided
Robot-guided digital literacy curriculum for MyChart training, delivered via a Misty social robot.
Other: robot-guided curriculum
Robot-guided digital literacy curriculum to complete MyChart tasks such as scheduling, messaging, and viewing results using the mock app.
Other: Video-guided
Educational video curriculum for MyChart training, delivered via an educational video.
Other: Video-guided curriumlum
Video-guided digital literacy curriculum to complete MyChart tasks such as scheduling, messaging, and viewing results using the mock app.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Quantitative Outcomes
Time Frame: From enrollment to the completion of the guided curriculum in about one hour.
Changes in digital-literacy scores from pre-test to post-test to show participants' ability to complete MyChart tasks (e.g., scheduling, messaging, viewing results) using the mock app, and their self-reported engagement, trust, and usability ratings for the intervention.
From enrollment to the completion of the guided curriculum in about one hour.

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Qualitative outcomes
Time Frame: From enrollment to the completion of the guided curriculum in about one hour.
Improvements in confidence using MyChart-like portals. Themes emerging from post-study semi-structured interviews regarding barriers, facilitators, and perceptions of robot-mediated teaching.
From enrollment to the completion of the guided curriculum in about one hour.

Collaborators and Investigators

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

Sponsor

Northwestern University

Collaborators

National Cancer Institute (NCI)
Purdue University

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: Melissa Simon, Northwestern University

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)

January 30, 2026

Primary Completion (Estimated)

August 31, 2026

Study Completion (Estimated)

August 31, 2026

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

July 7, 2026

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

July 11, 2026

First Posted (Actual)

July 16, 2026

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

July 16, 2026

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

July 11, 2026

Last Verified

July 1, 2026

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Other Study ID Numbers

  • STU00223333
  • 5U19CA291404-02 (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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