Evaluating the Preferences and Tradeoffs of AI-based Electronic Consultations for Older Adults in Primary Care

Conditions

• Primary Care Patients
• Primary Care Provider

Eligibility Criteria

Sex

ALL

Age

65 Years - N/A

Healthy Volunteers

Not accepted

Interventions

• Discrete Choice Experiment Survey — OTHER
  Participants will review these e-consults systems via a one-time survey lasting about 15 minutes.

Study Details

Electronic consultations, or e-consults, let a primary care doctor request medical advice from a specialist without requiring the patient to attend a separate visit. Artificial intelligence (AI) systems may be able to provide this type of advice, potentially making e-consults faster and less costly. However, whether AI-based e-consults are acceptable may depend on how patients and clinicians weigh factors such as who provides the advice, how quickly it is received, its cost, and its quality. The purpose of this study is to examine how older adult patients and primary care clinicians weigh these factors when comparing e-consults produced by a human specialist with those produced by an AI system. In the study, participants will complete a one-time survey in which they compare sets of two hypothetical e-consults. Each e-consult will include a different combination of features, such as whether the advice comes from a human or AI, the expected wait time, the cost, and the quality of the advice. This study will estimate how much patients and clinicians value each feature in an e-consult. The findings will inform the potential future AI e-consults, so they better reflect patient and clinician preferences.

Key Dates

First listed

Aug 14, 2026

Start date

Aug 31, 2026

Status verified

Aug 2026

Primary completion

Dec 31, 2026

Completion

Dec 31, 2026

Study Design

Enrollment

220 participants (estimated)

Allocation

NA

Intervention model

SINGLE_GROUP

Primary purpose

HEALTH_SERVICES_RESEARCH

Arms

• Experimental: Electronic Consultation Systems
  Participants will review 2 different e-consult systems, which will differ in terms of quality, cost, wait time, and source of the e-consult. Participants will then indicate a preference for 1 e-consult system in each set.

Primary Outcome Measure

Preferences and Tradeoffs of Attributes of Electronic Consults [ Time Frame: From enrollment to the end of the survey, approximately 15 minutes ]

Central Contacts

• Nicholas Bishop
  215-573-0779
  [email protected]

Locations (1)

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