NCT06682013

Virtual Agent Feasibility in Oncology Patients (NTT Data)

A Randomized Pilot Study Comparing the Feasibility of Using a Virtual Agent vs. an Off-site Human Agent to Onboard Oncology Patients to a Remote Monitoring Device

• Status: Recruiting
• Phase: N/A
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 36 (estimated)
• Sponsor: Duke University · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: 18 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Not accepted

Summary

The purpose of this study is to compare the use of a virtual agent vs. a human agent when onboarding oncology patients over the telephone to Remote Patient Monitoring (RPM) devices. RPM devices are instruments that a patient can use to measure their own weight and vital signs. Both the virtual and human agents will be available by telephone to instruct the patient on how to use the RPM devices to measure weight, blood pressure, heart rate, temperature, and oxygen saturation. Patients will be randomized to either the virtual or human agent, have assessments of their medical and oncological history, overall well-being, body measurements, and vital signs, and will complete questionnaires about their experience.

Conditions

• Lung Cancer

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
DEVICE	Virtual agent	The virtual agent is an interactive audio agent that is similar to voice agents that interact with callers in many industries today. They create a very human-like interaction in contrast to more traditional virtual call agents that can only respond to menu options (e.g. "choose "1" for appointments, choose "2" for questions about your bill", etc.). The virtual agent is engineered to accomplish the very specific task of onboarding the patient on use of the RPM devices. It is trained to understand normal human English speech, detects emotional tone and frustration of callers, and is trained to deescalate when appropriate.
OTHER	Human agent	The human agent will onboard the patient on use of the RPM devices.

Timeline

• Start date: 2026-04-01
• Primary completion: 2026-08-01
• Completion: 2026-08-01
• First posted: 2024-11-12
• Last updated: 2026-03-18

Locations

1 site across 1 country: United States

Regulatory

• FDA-regulated device study