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Not yet recruitingNCT07756632Updated Aug 10, 2026

Evaluating the Effectiveness of an AI-powered Physician Assistant in Improving Patients' and Physician's Satisfaction in an Outpatient Setting of a Tertiary Care Hospital.

An interventional study of AI Physician Assistant in Patient Centered Care and Integration in Clinical Workflows, sponsored by Aga Khan University. Not yet recruiting at 1 site in Pakistan. Open to participants aged 18 Years and older, including healthy volunteers. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2026-08-10.

Sponsored by Aga Khan University · Not applicable, Interventional, and Other

Phase
Not applicable
Study type
Interventional
Enrollment
367
Allocation
Randomized
Ages
18 Years and older
Sex
All
01

Study summary

Patients' satisfaction depends on several factors, including health care costs, access to care, and the waiting time to see a healthcare professional. In Pakistan, hospitals face overcrowding, which in turn results in long waiting times, particularly in outpatient departments. Longer waiting times not only hurt patients' experience and hospitals' performance but also increase stress on the physicians.

These challenges can be addressed with the effective use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and related technologies. By leveraging machine learning algorithms and advanced data prediction models, AI can augment healthcare providers in clinical decision-making and streamline their work processes. However, these applications are largely studied and implemented in high-income countries, creating a lack of evidence from low- and middle-income countries.

Hence, a randomized controlled trial will be conducted to assess the effectiveness of an AI physician assistant in improving patient and physician satisfaction within outpateint clincis of a resource constrained setting.

02

Conditions studied

  • Patient Centered Care
  • Integration in Clinical Workflows

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Keywords

  • Patient Satisfaction
  • Physician Satisfaction
  • Quality of Care
  • Workflows
03

Who can participate

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

Eligibility criteria

Inclusion Criteria (Patients):

  • Informed consent before enrolment.
  • Adults aged 18 years and above.
  • Initial patients registering at the clinic during the entire trial duration.
  • Possession of a digital device for an OTP (one-time password)
  • Can read and write Urdu and/or English

Inclusion Criteria (Physicians):

  • Informed Consent
  • Agree to include AI physician assistant in their workflows

Exclusion Criteria (Patients):

  • Patients requiring emergency care
  • Patients who refuse to complete the history process with the AI physician assistant.

Exclusion Criteria (Physicians):

- Physicians from non-surgical specialties

04

Study design

Phase
Not applicable
Primary purpose
Other
Allocation
Randomized
Intervention model
Parallel assignment
Masking
Single (Outcomes assessor)
Enrollment
367 participants (estimated)

Study arms

  • Experimental
    AI Physician Assistant

    The intervention group will comprise participants enrolled in the application (AI physician assistant) in addition to the standard of care The study participant allocated to the intervention will interact with the AI-physician assistant application "Hami" before they consult with the physician. The application will collect the medical history of the patient. This will then be followed by an AI-generated clinical summary, which their physicians will receive before the consultation begins. Physicians will review this summary and ask further questions of patients if required, and update the patient's record through an inbuilt scribe feature in the application.

    Other: AI Physician Assistant

  • No intervention
    Standard of Care

    The arm will comprise participants who receive standard care. In surgical clinics, standard care involves residents seeing the patients before the physicians. However, as part of the study, we will include physicians who agree to see patients without residents taking the history first. Hence, the trial uses the term 'physician' as part of the control group or standard care terminology.

Interventions

  • OtherAI Physician Assistant

    The intervention evaluated here is an AI Physician Assistant. The assistant takes the patient's history using a specialty-specific line of questioning. Once the interaction ends, the application converts the information into an AI-generated clinical summary for physicians to review. The physician reviews the summary and asks the patient additional questions, if required. Any additions or changes to the patient's history are recorded in the application. The physician then conducts a physical examination and can view AI-generated and guideline-based recommendations for assessment and treatment within the application. These recommendations may be selected, modified, or disregarded according to the physician's clinical expertise. All additions to the patient's record can be entered manually or dictated verbally and automatically added through the application's ambient scribe feature. Once the treatment plan has been documented, the application generates a SOAP note.

05

What researchers measure

Primary outcomes

  1. Patient's satisfaction

    Patient satisfaction is conceptualized through the lens of perceived quality of care, which is influenced by the effective utilization of waiting time and the provision of patient-centred care. Effective utilization of waiting time refers to patients' perceptions regarding whether their waiting time was used meaningfully during the visit. The domains of patient-centred care have been adapted from the Institute of Medicine (IOM) framework and include respect for patients' values and preferences, coordinated and integrated care, adequacy of information and communication, emotional support, involvement of family and friends, and physical comfort. These questions have been adapted based on the study objectives. The questionnaire will include demographic questions and five-point Likert-scale items (Strongly Agree to Strongly Disagree) and one open-ended question to obtain additional feedback regarding patients' experiences and satisfaction.

    Time frame: Every day from each patient for a period of 2 months

Secondary outcomes

  1. Physician Satisfaction

    It will be assessed with regards to integration of an AI-powered physician assistant, focusing on usability, impact on workflow efficiency, evidence based treatment recommendations and improved patient-physician interaction. Physician's satisfaction will be calculated utilizing mean scoring system, where each question will be scored on a 5 point Likert scale (Strongly Agree to Strongly Disagree). Additionally, we will ask one open-ended question at the end of the survey as part of physician satisfaction. This tool will be made exclusively for this study and will undergo content validation.

    Time frame: From each physician at the end of each day for two months.

  2. Mean consultation time

    Consultation time (calculated in minutes) refers to the time taken by the physician while the patient is in the physician's room and the time taken by the physician for each of the following: to inquire about symptoms, conduct an examination, prescribe treatment, and provide counselling. It will be measured using timestamps from a stopwatch from the time the patient enters the consultation room till the time they leave.

    Time frame: Every day for each patient consultation for a period of 2 months

Other outcomes

  1. Process flow evaluation outcome - Mean queuing time

    Mean queuing time for each patient before the consultation process begins. Queuing time (calculated in minutes) refers to the time spent by a patient in the waiting area after their registration has been completed till the start of their consultation. It will be recorded using timestamps in two steps: one starting from the registration till the vitals are taken, secondly after vitals have been recorded till the patient visit the physician. These timings will be combined into a single aggregated time and will be calculated once for each patient.

    Time frame: Every day for each patient visit for a period of 2 months

06

Study locations

1 site
  • Aga Khan University Hospital
    Karachi, Pakistan
07

References and documents

Individual participant data

Plan to share: No

No publications or documents are linked to this record.

08

Registry details

Key details

Study ID
NCT07756632
Lead sponsor
Aga Khan University
Responsible party
Saqib Bakhshi (Assistant Professor, Aga Khan University) — Principal investigator
First posted
Aug 10, 2026
Start date
Sep 1, 2026 (estimated)
Primary completion
Nov 1, 2026 (estimated)
Completion
Nov 1, 2026 (estimated)
Last update
Aug 10, 2026

Study contacts

Saqib Bakhshi
Contact
saqib.dow@gmail.com
+923062750710
Shifa Habib
Contact
shifa.habib@aku.edu
+923018222783

Oversight

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

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