NCT07290478

Encouraging Older Adults and Adults With Serious Illness to Designate a Health Care Proxy

A Randomized Trial to Encourage Older Adults and Adults With Serious Illness to Designate a Health Care Proxy

• Status: Not Yet Recruiting
• Phase: N/A
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 10,000 (estimated)
• Sponsor: University of Southern California · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: 18 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Not accepted

Summary

This study is a Stage III randomized trial to encourage patients in advance of a health care appointment to designate a healthcare proxy. Patients will be randomly assigned to receive a mailer containing information about designating a healthcare proxy, or to not receive any mailer. For patients assigned to receive a mailer, the mailer will differ by the presence or absence of a patient pre-commitment prompt, and contain a personalized provider request or a generic health system request. The work will evaluate the randomized trial and identify factors that predict intervention effectiveness.

Conditions

• Designating a Healthcare Proxy

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
BEHAVIORAL	Mailer	Patient mailers will ask the patient to name a healthcare proxy at their next primary care visit.
BEHAVIORAL	Provider Request	Patient mailers will be sent from and signed by the patient's provider for their next scheduled primary care visit.
BEHAVIORAL	Pre-commitment Prompt	Patient mailers will contain a box that asks the patient to bring a form with their choice for a healthcare proxy to their next primary care visit.

Timeline

• Start date: 2026-06-01
• Primary completion: 2027-06-01
• Completion: 2027-08-31
• First posted: 2025-12-18
• Last updated: 2026-04-13