Avatar Contraception Communication Training

NCT ID: NCT05995574

Last Updated: 2025-09-03

Basic Information

• Recruitment Status: NOT_YET_RECRUITING
• Clinical Phase: NA
• Total Enrollment: 166 participants
• Study Classification: INTERVENTIONAL
• Study Start Date: 2026-04-01
• Study Completion Date: 2030-06-30

Brief Summary

In order to support the desire of most adolescents to delay pregnancy (parenting) until their own adulthood, pediatricians must be comfortable and skilled in having reproductive health conversations with adolescents and the mothers of adolescents. Advocates for Youth (AFY), a national, youth-facing, well-established, non-profit, is known for innovative sexual and reproductive health programs. AFY successfully implemented a virtual simulation for schoolteachers to practice sex education scenarios by interacting with culturally diverse student avatars. We will partner with AFY to adapt their novel simulation-based approach to train medical residents in using SDM with youth and parent avatars. Our long-term goal is to build clinician confidence in SDM and actual skills via simulation training with dyadic avatars. We will also explore how evaluation of clinician communication skills varies from youth-, parent-, and clinician-viewpoints.

Detailed Description

Specific Aims seek to (1) iteratively adapt and refine the simulation training (1a) and measurement tools (1b) with three community advisory boards (CAB) of separate groups of teens, parents, and clinicians; and (2) conduct a proof-of-concept pre-post evaluation of clinician confidence in counseling dyads after one-time exposure to the simulation (n=100 medical residents). We will record residents' communications in the simulation and a subset of clinicians, parents, and adolescents from each CAB will evaluate residents' SDM skills via the Person-Centered Contraception Counseling (PCCC) scale. Hypothesis: Most medical residents (75%) will self-report improvement or stability in confidence with high acceptability of the simulation training. We will explore 1) overall concordance between self- and expert-reported evaluation outcomes (SDM skills, PCCC scale); 2) compare the distribution of each evaluation item by evaluator; and 3) explore correlations between scales by evaluator. Impact: This proof-of-concept study, co-developed and co-evaluated with community members and families, fills a gap in communication training to inform a future fully powered ORBIT stage 3 efficacy trial to test actual triadic communication in the real-world with comparator groups of medical residents across national training programs.

Conditions

Communication

Study Design

• Allocation Method: NA
• Intervention Model: SINGLE_GROUP
• Primary Study Purpose: HEALTH_SERVICES_RESEARCH
• Blinding Strategy: NONE

Study Groups

Avatar training

One hundred physician learners will train with the avatar communication training tool as a behavioral intervention. Before the training (T0), the learners will complete a pre-survey to assess their baseline confidence. At the start of training, after a brief introduction and orientation to the tool, the learners will complete a 10-min uninterrupted scenario with a teen-parent avatar dyad about a contraception scenario. After the initial scenario (T1), the learner will pause and complete an assessment to evaluate use of SDM (Shared decision making) skills and PCCC (person-centered contraceptive counseling). Then, the learner will train for an hour with the tool. At the end (T2), the learner will complete another uninterrupted scenario and evaluate their confidence, SDM, and PCCC skills.

Group Type: EXPERIMENTAL

avatar communication training

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

Avatar simulates a mother and a daughter for the pediatrician to practice communication about contraception.

Interventions

avatar communication training

Avatar simulates a mother and a daughter for the pediatrician to practice communication about contraception.

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

Eligibility Criteria

Inclusion Criteria

• Providers (medical residents, fellows, attendings)
• Recruited from the Adolescent and Young Adult (AYA) Medicine Clinic at Children's Medical Center of Dallas.

Exclusion Criteria

• Unable to speak or read in Spanish/English

• Minimum Eligible Age: 18 Years
• Eligible Sex: ALL
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes

Sponsors

University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center

OTHER

Sponsor Role: lead

Responsible Party

Jenny Francis

Associate Professor

Responsibility Role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR

Principal Investigators

Jenny KR Francis, MD

Role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR

UTSouthwestern

Locations

Childrens Health Adolescent and Young Adult Medicine (AYA) Clinic

Dallas, Texas, United States

UT Southwestern Medical Center

Dallas, Texas, United States

Countries

United States

Central Contacts

Jenny KR Francis, MD, MPH

Role: CONTACT

Jenny.Francis@utsouthwestern.edu

214-456-6792

Jenny KR Francis, MD, MPH

Role: CONTACT

jkrfrancis@gmail.com

214-456-6792

Facility Contacts

Jenny K Francis, MD

Role: primary

jenny.francis@utsouthwestern.edu

214-456-6792

May KR Lau, MD

Role: backup

may.lau@utsouthwestern.edu

214-456-9099

Jenny KR Francis, MD, MPH

Role: primary

jenny.francis@utsouthwestern.edu

214-456-6792

Jenny KR Francis, MD, MPH

Role: backup

jkrfrancis@gmail.com

214-456-6792

Other Identifiers

Pending funding

Identifier Type: -

Identifier Source: org_study_id