Clinical Trial

Nudging Effective and Equitable Delivery of Specialty Palliative Care

Study acronym: NEEDS-PC

Enrolling by Invitation Phase 3

Summary

This stepped-wedge, cluster randomized pragmatic trial among 9 MedStar hospitals for patients with serious illness and unmet palliative care (PC) needs will test two interventions embedded within the electronic health record (EHR): (1) a PC needs triggered alert to opt-in to PC consults nudging hospital clinicians to order specialty PC consults for eligible inpatients, and (2) a palliative care needs triggered alert with an opt-out to palliative care consults. The trial will compare the interventions effects to usual care, focusing on completed PC consults during the hospital encounter and other secondary outcomes. The trial also includes an embedded mixed methods study to explore factors influencing the effectiveness and equity of intervention implementation.

Protocol Amendment History 13 amendments

This ClinicalTrials.gov record has been amended 13 times since 2024-09-12; most recent amendment 2026-04-29.

Status change: Not Yet Recruiting → Enrolling by Invitation 2025-08-06

Trial Details

NCT Number	NCT06596577
Lead Sponsor	University of Pennsylvania Collaborators: National Institute on Aging (NIA), Medstar Health Research Institute
Conditions	Serious Illness, Palliative
Enrollment	18,000 participants
Start Date	2025-08-06
Primary Completion	2028-03-01 (estimated)
Study Completion	2029-02-28 (estimated)
Updated on ClinicalTrials.gov	2026-04-30