Clinician Motivational Interviewing Training Evaluation

September 8, 2026 updated by: Amir Goren, Geisinger Clinic

Evaluating Clinician Motivational Interviewing Training to Improve Patient Outcomes

The goal of this study is to evaluate the impact of motivational interviewing (MI) training for Geisinger clinicians on their patients' health outcomes. Clinicians will be randomly assigned to attend or not attend mandated MI training, which will be provided at one of several sessions offered beginning in August 2026. Randomization will be stratified by department to ensure participant balance and that participating departments maintain necessary staffing levels during the training period. The study will assess whether there is a significant increase in patients' positive health behaviors and outcomes, as reflected in an index measure of multiple outcomes that may reasonably be facilitated by MI training: vaccinations and health screenings as reflected in electronic health record care gaps. Smoking cessation and other lifestyle modifications, preventive medication adherence, and behavioral health use may also be examined as part of an overall measure of MI impact. For each clinician assigned to the study, all patients they see in the 90-day period following the (would-be) date of that clinician's training will be identified and enrolled in the study. Outcome timeframes will then be relative to each unique patient's first encounter following (would-be) training.

Study Overview

Status

Enrolling by invitation

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Estimated)

180000

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
      • Danville, Pennsylvania, United States, 17822
        • Geisinger Health System

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

Clinician Inclusion Criteria:

  • Employed by Geisinger throughout study period
  • Working in the Community Medical Service Line (CMSL) or 65 Forward
  • MD, DO, PA

Patient Inclusion Criteria:

  • >= 18 years of age
  • Attended a CMSL or 65 Forward encounter with an enrolled clinician at least once during the study period, following the MI training

Exclusion Criteria:

  • N/A

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: Parallel Assignment
  • Masking: None (Open Label)

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: MI training
Clinician is assigned to attend an MI training session
Behavioral: MI training
Clinicians will be instructed to register for one MI training session that will be conducted live and in person, with possible virtual training available for those unable to attend in person
No Intervention: Control
Clinician is not assigned to MI training

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Proportion of care gaps addressed
Time Frame: Within 180 days following initial patient encounter, as of day following (would-be) assigned MI training session
Proportion of open care gaps closed
Within 180 days following initial patient encounter, as of day following (would-be) assigned MI training session

Collaborators and Investigators

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

Sponsor

Geisinger Clinic

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: Amir Goren, PhD, Geisinger Clinic

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)

August 18, 2026

Primary Completion (Estimated)

August 1, 2028

Study Completion (Estimated)

August 1, 2028

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

August 17, 2026

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

September 8, 2026

First Posted (Actual)

September 11, 2026

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

September 11, 2026

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

September 8, 2026

Last Verified

August 1, 2026

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Other Study ID Numbers

  • 2026-0493

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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