An interventional study of Fudan Tinnitus Doctor (FTD) System and Non-conversational Digital Education Program in Tinnitus, sponsored by Eye & ENT Hospital of Fudan University. Not yet recruiting at 1 site in China. Open to participants aged 18 Years to 70 Years. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2026-05-07.
Sponsored by Eye & ENT Hospital of Fudan University · Not applicable, Interventional, and Treatment
The goal of this clinical trial is to evaluate whether a conversational artificial intelligence-based digital intervention can improve symptoms in adults with chronic subjective tinnitus.
The main questions it aims to answer are:
Does the Fudan Tinnitus Doctor (FTD) system reduce tinnitus severity as measured by the Tinnitus Handicap Inventory (THI).
Does the FTD system improve sleep quality, anxiety, depression, and overall patient-reported outcomes.
Researchers will compare the FTD system to a non-conversational digital education program to determine whether the AI-based intervention provides greater clinical benefits.
Participants will:
Use either the FTD conversational AI system or a static digital education program for 30 days.
Complete standardized questionnaires assessing tinnitus severity, sleep, mood, and overall improvement at baseline, Day 14, and Day 30.
Engage with the digital platform for tinnitus self-management.
This study is a prospective, two-arm, parallel-group, open-label randomized controlled trial designed to evaluate the efficacy, usability, and safety of a multi-agent large language model (LLM)-based conversational artificial intelligence system (Fudan Tinnitus Doctor, FTD) for the management of chronic subjective tinnitus.
A total of 256 participants will be randomized in a 1:1 ratio to either the FTD intervention or a non-conversational digital education control. The intervention period is 30 days. The FTD system delivers personalized, real-time tinnitus management using a multi-agent architecture integrating cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT)-based strategies, including psychoeducation, cognitive restructuring, relaxation training, and sleep hygiene guidance. The control group receives a static digital program consisting of educational materials and a fixed-response question-and-answer module.
The primary outcome will be the change in tinnitus severity measured by the Tinnitus Handicap Inventory (THI) from baseline to Day 30. Secondary outcomes will include sleep quality (Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index, PSQI), anxiety (GAD-2), depression (PHQ-2), and overall perceived improvement (Patient Global Impression of Change, PGIC). Exploratory outcomes will assess usability (System Usability Scale, SUS), satisfaction (Net Promoter Score, NPS), and engagement metrics. All outcomes will be analyzed using mixed-effects models under the intention-to-treat principle.
444 studies on the registry are indexed under Tinnitus; 98 are open to participants now.
This study's planned enrollment of 256 is above the median of 60 across 368 interventional studies indexed under Tinnitus.
Browse Tinnitus studies →Eye & ENT Hospital of Fudan University is the lead sponsor of 126 studies on the registry; 70 are open to participants now.
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Go through the criteria one by one — yes, no or not sure — and take the list to your doctor or the study team. Kept in this browser only.
Exclusion Criteria:
Underlined terms in the criteria open these too. Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Before you join, the study team explains what taking part involves — its purpose, what happens, the risks and possible benefits — and answers your questions, so you can decide freely. Consent is usually recorded on a form (the informed consent form, ICF) signed by you or, where the law allows, by someone legally authorised to decide for you.
You can keep asking questions during the study, you are told of new information that matters, and you can choose to leave at any time.
A reason a treatment, test or procedure should not be given to a particular person, such as an allergy, another illness or a medicine they take.
Informed consent
Before you join, the study team explains what taking part involves — its purpose, what happens, the risks and possible benefits — and answers your questions, so you can decide freely. Consent is usually recorded on a form (the informed consent form, ICF) signed by you or, where the law allows, by someone legally authorised to decide for you.
You can keep asking questions during the study, you are told of new information that matters, and you can choose to leave at any time.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Contraindication
A reason a treatment, test or procedure should not be given to a particular person, such as an allergy, another illness or a medicine they take.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Participants in this arm will use the Fudan Tinnitus Doctor (FTD) system, a multi-agent large language model-based conversational AI platform that delivers personalized tinnitus management strategies based on cognitive behavioral therapy principles.
Device: Fudan Tinnitus Doctor (FTD) System
Participants in this arm will receive access to a non-conversational digital program consisting of static educational materials and a fixed-response question-and-answer module related to tinnitus, sleep, and mental health.
Device: Non-conversational Digital Education Program
The FTD system is a multi-agent conversational artificial intelligence platform that delivers personalized tinnitus management through a secure web-based interface. It supports multimodal interaction (text and voice) and integrates a large language model, retrieval-augmented generation, and multi-agent collaboration to provide cognitive behavioral therapy-based interventions, including psychoeducation, cognitive restructuring, relaxation techniques, and sleep hygiene guidance.
Participants in this arm will receive access to a non-conversational digital tinnitus self-management program delivered through the same secure web-based interface as the intervention group. The program provides static educational materials and a fixed-response question-and-answer module related to tinnitus, sleep, and mental health.
Tinnitus Handicap Inventory (THI)
The THI questionnaire, widely used in research, including functional, emotional, and catastrophic subscales. It consists of 25 questions, and answers are rated on a "yes" (4 points), "sometimes" (2 points), and "no" (0 points) scale. The total score is calculated by adding up the scores for all questions and classifying the severity of tinnitus as no handicap (0-16), mild handicap (18-36), moderate handicap (38-56), and severe handicap (58-100).
Time frame: Baseline, Day 14, and Day 30
Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI)
The PSQI will be used to evaluate subjective sleep quality over the past month. It comprises 19 items yielding seven component scores (subjective sleep quality, latency, duration, efficiency, disturbances, use of sleep medication, and daytime dysfunction). The global PSQI score ranges from 0 to 21, with higher scores indicating worse sleep quality.
Time frame: Baseline, Day 14, and Day 30
Generalized Anxiety Disorder Scale (GAD-2)
The GAD-2 will assess anxiety symptoms over the past two weeks. Each of the two items is rated from 0 ("not at all") to 3 ("nearly every day"). The total score ranges from 0 to 6, with higher scores indicating greater anxiety. A score ≥3 suggests clinically significant anxiety.
Time frame: Baseline, Day 14, and Day 30]
Patient Health Questionnaire-2 (PHQ-2)
The PHQ-2 will measure depressive symptoms over the past two weeks. Each of the two items is rated from 0 ("not at all") to 3 ("nearly every day"). The total score ranges from 0 to 6, with higher scores indicating greater depressive symptoms. A score ≥3 suggests clinically significant depression.
Time frame: Baseline, Day 14, and Day 30
Patient Global Impression of Change (PGIC)
The PGIC will assess the participant's overall perception of improvement since starting the intervention. It is rated on a 7-point Likert scale from 1 ("very much improved") to 7 ("very much worse"), with lower scores representing greater perceived improvement.
Time frame: Day 14, and Day 30
System Usability Scale (SUS)
The System Usability Scale (SUS) will be used to evaluate participants' perceived usability and satisfaction with the Fudan Tinnitus Doctor (FTD) conversational AI system at Day 30. The SUS is a 10-item questionnaire rated on a 5- point scale. The total score will be calculated as (sum of adjusted item scores × 2.5), ranging from 0 to 100, with higher scores indicating greater usability.
Time frame: Day 30
Net Promoter Score (NPS)
The Net Promoter Score (NPS) will be used to assess participants' likelihood of recommending the Fudan Tinnitus Doctor system to others at Day 30. Participants will rate their likelihood on a scale from 0 (not at all likely) to 10 (extremely likely).
Time frame: Day 30
User Engagement Metrics
User engagement will be assessed using three predefined system-recorded metrics: (1)Login Frequency: Number of logins. (2)Active Session Duration: Total time (minutes) spent actively interacting with the system, excluding inactive periods and time spent completing study assessments. (3)Conversation Turns: Number of complete interaction cycles, defined as one user input followed by one system response. Higher values indicate greater engagement.
Time frame: Continuous during 30-day intervention period
Plan to share: No — Deidentified individual participant data (IPD) collected for this trial, including outcome measures and baseline characteristics, will be made available upon reasonable request to qualified researchers. Data sharing will require prior approval from the Institutional Review Board of the Eye \& ENT Hospital of Fudan University. The DeepSeek-R1 671B model used to support the intervention is open-source and publicly accessible at https://github.com/deepseek-ai/DeepSeek-R1.
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