A Multi-Site Feasibility Trial of Embedded Emergency Department Physical Therapy for Dizziness

This is a multi-site feasibility trial of an embedded emergency department (ED) physical therapy care model for dizziness at two EDs in the Northwestern Medicine and University of Utah Health systems. The study intervention (embedded ED physical therapy) is a reconceptualization of the traditional outpatient physical therapy care model in which we place a physical therapist directly in the ED to initiate timely care for patients with dizziness; we previously evaluated this intervention in a single center randomized trial for low back pain. This multi-site feasibility trial will be comprised of 9 months of active intervention and 12 months of longitudinal data collection. The two sites will be parallel randomized 1:1 to receive either the embedded ED physical therapy condition (intervention, n=1) or usual care (control, n=1) via simple randomization. This trial focuses on feasibility outcomes - such as our ability to enroll participants, deliver the intervention with fidelity, and collect longitudinal patient-reported outcome data and electronic health record data.

NCT Number	NCT07225023
Lead Sponsor	Northwestern University Collaborators: University of Utah, Northwestern Lake Forest Hospital, Northwestern Memorial Hospital, National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD)
Conditions	Dizziness
Enrollment	100 participants
Start Date	2026-04-01
Primary Completion	2027-07-01 (estimated)
Study Completion	2028-04-01 (estimated)
Updated on ClinicalTrials.gov	2026-04-07