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Active, not recruitingNCT06971978Updated Jun 11, 2026

Study to Assess the Effectiveness of a Heat Risk Reduction Decision Support Platform and the Barriers and Facilitators of Its Implementation With 30 US Local Health Department Sites

An interventional study of Online decision support platform to support evidence-based heat health risk assessment and extreme heat event preparedness planning and Heat and health risk assessment and preparedness information in Extreme Heat, Heat Health and Extreme Heat Waves, sponsored by University of Washington. Active, not recruiting at 1 site in United States. Open to participants aged 18 Years and older, including healthy volunteers. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2026-06-11.

Sponsored by University of Washington · Not applicable, Interventional, and Other

Phase
Not applicable
Study type
Interventional
Enrollment
30
Allocation
Randomized
Ages
18 Years and older
Sex
All
01

Study summary

The goal of this clinical trial is to learn if an innovative online decision support tool (Chart) that provides localized health risk assessment for extreme heat at the census tract level helps local health departments plan and prepare for extreme heat by identifying risk drivers in their jurisdictions, highlighting interventions that are effective for their jurisdiction's risk profile, and providing information regarding intervention implementation. This trial will evaluate barriers and facilitators of the tool's implementation. The main questions it aims to answer are:

  1. Does a health department using the tool have better reach, effectiveness, adoption, implementation, and maintenance of heat-health activities compared with an information-only control?
  2. What are the barriers and facilitators of Chart's implementation?

Researchers will compare health departments using Chart to health departments using provided heat-health information only.

02

Conditions studied

  • Extreme Heat
  • Heat Health
  • Extreme Heat Waves
  • Heat
  • Emergency Preparedness
  • Disaster Management
  • Disaster Planning
  • Disasters

Keywords

  • heat
  • extreme heat event
  • climate
  • risk reduction
03

Who can participate

Ages eligible
18 Years and older
Sexes eligible
All
Accepts healthy volunteers
Yes

Inclusion criteria

  • Local (city or county) health department
  • Local (i.e., city or county) health department with at least partial autonomy to pursue the development and implementation of heat-health activities (i.e., not a state where all public health activities are administered at a state level)
  • Availability of a staff member to participate in all elements of the trial. Local health department staff responsible for planning and implementing programming to protect constituents from extreme heat.
  • Adults whose demographics and health status will mirror those of the general population.
  • Current employees of included health departments aged 18 or greater

Exclusion criteria

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Being in a state where public health activities are exclusively managed at a state level and not having staff availability to participate
  • Children and prisoners
04

Study design

Phase
Not applicable
Primary purpose
Other
Allocation
Randomized
Intervention model
Parallel assignment
Masking
None (open label)
Enrollment
30 participants (estimated)

Study arms

  • Experimental
    Intervention group

    The intervention group will receive facilitated engagement with Chart. Chart is an online decision support platform designed to support evidence-based climate change adaptation. Chart has a risk assessment platform that provides estimates of heat-health risks at a census tract level under various hazard conditions. It also has a decision support platform that links drivers of risk in a given location with information about potential risk reduction activities and includes information useful to policymakers regarding intervention efficacy, timing, and cost. Facilitated engagement includes an initial introduction to the platform, real-time questions and answers, and focused discussion regarding priority interventions and planning and implementation needs. This engagement comprises about five hours of time that can be provided over the course of a couple weeks or several months, depending on the needs of the health department.

    Other: Online decision support platform to support evidence-based heat health risk assessment and extreme heat event preparedness planning

  • Active comparator
    Control group

    Study participants in the control group will be provided with a package of information supportive of heat-health vulnerability and risk assessment and planning for risk reduction activities through built environment hazard mitigation and public health programming. This package will include an annotated list of online resources, including those available on Heat.gov and the CDC website, and a selected set of review papers on heat-health vulnerability, heat-health risk assessment, heat hazard mitigation through built environment strategies, and heat action planning and preparedness.

    Other: Heat and health risk assessment and preparedness information

Interventions

  • OtherOnline decision support platform to support evidence-based heat health risk assessment and extreme heat event preparedness planning

    The intervention group will receive facilitated engagement with Chart. Chart is an online decision support platform designed to support evidence-based risk assessment and planning for extreme heat risk mitigation. Chart has a risk assessment platform that provides estimates of heat-health risks at a census tract level under various hazard conditions. It also has a decision support platform that links drivers of risk in a given location with information about potential risk reduction activities and includes information useful to policymakers regarding intervention efficacy, timing, and cost. Facilitated engagement includes an initial introduction to the platform, real-time questions and answers, and focused discussion regarding priority interventions and planning and implementation needs. This engagement comprises about five hours of time that can be provided over the course of a couple weeks or several months, depending on the needs of the health department.

  • OtherHeat and health risk assessment and preparedness information

    Study participants in the control group will be provided with a package of information supportive of heat-health vulnerability and risk assessment and planning for risk reduction activities through built environment hazard mitigation and public health programming. This package will include an annotated list of online resources, including those available on Heat.gov and the CDC website, and a selected set of review papers on heat-health vulnerability, heat-health risk assessment, heat hazard mitigation through built environment strategies, and heat action planning and preparedness.

05

What researchers measure

Primary outcomes

  1. Baseline assessment: demographics

    All departments will undertake the pre-intervention baseline assessment. The baseline assessment will gather information related to organizational demographics and demographics of the communities that the organization serves.

    Time frame: Baseline

  2. Baseline assessment: current activities

    All departments will undertake the pre-intervention baseline assessment. The baseline assessment will gather information related to the organization's current activities relevant to extreme heat, including surveillance and program evaluation activities.

    Time frame: Baseline

  3. Baseline assessment: implementation factors

    All departments will undertake the pre-intervention baseline assessment. The baseline assessment will gather information related to contextual and organizational factors that may affect intervention implementation.

    Time frame: Baseline

  4. Post-intervention survey: demographics

    Meaningful changes in the demographics of the organization or service area.

    Time frame: Eight months after the intervention begins.

  5. Post-intervention survey: activities

    The the post-intervention assessment will query participants regarding meaningful changes in the organization's activities and profile (e.g., the occurrence of a regional disaster that disrupted service provision across the organization).

    Time frame: Eight months after the intervention begins.

Secondary outcomes

  1. Key informant interviews

    Barriers and facilitators of Chart implementation and implementation outcomes using linkages to theoretical frameworks. Investigators will conduct key informant interviews (KIIs) with all 15 of the primary site contacts for the sites randomized to the intervention group. In this case, investigators will reference the Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research (CFIR) as a source of constructs to measure factors affecting Chart's implementation.

    Time frame: The key informant interviews will be completed eight months after the intervention begins.

06

Study locations

1 site
  • University of Washington
    Seattle, Washington 98105, United States
07

References and documents

Publications

  • Hess J, Burden M, Isaksen TMB, Ebi KL, Errett NA, Gridley-Smith C, Kramer CB, McCarthy C, McLaughlin O, Patel R, Reed A, Smith MH, Wheat S, Sherr K. Pilot randomized controlled trial to assess the effectiveness of a heat risk reduction decision support platform and barriers and facilitators of its implementation. Implement Sci Commun. 2025 Nov 27;6(1):136. doi: 10.1186/s43058-025-00829-3. PubMed 41310808 ↗
08

Registry details

Key details

Study ID
NCT06971978
Lead sponsor
University of Washington
Collaborators
National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS)
Responsible party
Jeremy Hess (Professor: Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences, University of Washington) — Principal investigator
First posted
May 14, 2025
Start date
Aug 1, 2025
Primary completion
Dec 2026 (estimated)
Completion
Aug 31, 2027 (estimated)
Last update
Jun 11, 2026

Study contacts

Jeremy Hess, MD, MPH
principal investigator · University of Washington

Oversight

Data monitoring committee
No
FDA-regulated drug
No
FDA-regulated device
No
View the source record on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗

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