Decision Support Systems, ClinicalSAGENCT07706920
Testing an AI Tool to Help Primary Care Clinicians With Specialty Consultation Questions
A study testing SAGE (AI clinical decision support) and Standard eConsult in people with Decision Support Systems, Clinical and Referral and Consultation, run by Stanford University at 1 site in United States.
Trial summary
The goal of this study is to test an artificial intelligence (AI) tool called SAGE. SAGE helps primary care doctors with questions that often need a specialist. Primary care doctors are the doctors people usually see first. SAGE reviews a case and suggests what a specialist might advise. Read more about this study
- Who is it for?
- Ages 18 years and olderHealthy volunteers can take part
- Conditions the study is for
- Decision Support Systems, Clinical, Referral and Consultation
- What is being tested?
- SAGE (AI clinical decision support) and Standard eConsult
- Could I receive a placebo?
- No, everyone receives an active treatment
- How many people
- 16 participants
- Where
- 1 siteUnited States
- Study dates
- 17 Aug 2026to 28 Aug 2026
- Phase
- Interventional
- Are there results?
- None posted in the registry
Key requirements
Who can take part, as listed by the sponsor. Only the study team can confirm whether you are eligible, so take this list to your doctor.
- Ages 18 years and older
- All sexes
- Healthy volunteers accepted
- Adult, Older adult
Who may be able to join
- Physician practicing in primary care internal medicine and/or family medicine
- Attending physician, or resident physician at postgraduate year 2 (PGY-2) or higher
- Stanford-affiliated (faculty, staff, or trainee)
- Able to complete a single, approximately 60-minute remote (Zoom) session conducted in English
Who cannot join
- Not currently practicing in primary care internal medicine or family medicine
- Member of the study team or otherwise involved in the development of SAGE
- Unable to complete the remote study session
Trial locations and contacts
1 site in 1 country.
About this study
Official title: Physician Usability and Output Quality Evaluation of a Retrieval-Augmented Language Model System for Specialty Medical Consultation: A Human-Computer Interaction Study
The goal of this study is to test an artificial intelligence (AI) tool called SAGE. SAGE helps primary care doctors with questions that often need a specialist. Primary care doctors are the doctors people usually see first. SAGE reviews a case and suggests what a specialist might advise.
The main questions it aims to answer are:
- Do doctors make sound, timely care decisions when they use SAGE?
- Do those decisions match what a specialist would advise?
Researchers will compare the decisions doctors make with and without SAGE.
Doctors in the study will:
- Review made-up patient cases (these are not real patients)
- Make a decision for each case, their usual way and with SAGE
- Being tested
- SAGE (AI clinical decision support), Standard eConsult
- Keywords
- clinical decision support, electronic consultation, primary care, artificial intelligence
What participants receive
What participants receive. In a randomised study each person is assigned to one group by chance.
SAGE (AI clinical decision support)Other
SAGE is an artificial intelligence (AI) based clinical decision support tool. It generates specialty-informed recommendations for a primary care consultation question. Physicians review the SAGE output while making a management decision for the synthetic case.
Standard eConsultOther
A standard electronic consultation (eConsult) format, without SAGE. Physicians review this information while making a management decision for the synthetic case.
| Study group | Role | What they receive |
|---|---|---|
| Primary care physicians | Experimental | Primary care physicians make management decisions on synthetic patient cases. Each physician reviews four cases in random order: two with SAGE (AI clinical decision support) and two using a standard eConsult approach. Receives: Other: SAGE (AI clinical decision support); Other: Standard eConsult |
What is being measured
The primary outcome is the main question the study is designed to answer.
Clinical actionability of the clinician's decision
For each case, independent reviewers judge whether the physician's decision is clinically actionable, meaning the physician can act on it now rather than wait for a specialist. The outcome is the proportion of cases judged actionable, measured separately for decisions made with SAGE and for decisions made the standard way.
Measured: Post-session independent review, through study completion (up to approximately 2 months)
Concordance of the clinician's decision with the specialist reference answer
Agreement between the physician's management decision and a specialist reference answer, rated by independent reviewers, with inter-rater agreement summarized. Assessed for decisions made with SAGE and for decisions made the standard way.
Measured: Post-session independent review, through study completion (up to approximately 2 months)
Secondary outcomes (3)
System usability (System Usability Scale, SUS)
Perceived usability of SAGE measured with the 10-item System Usability Scale (SUS), scored from 0 to 100.
Measured: End of study session (Day 1, approximately 60 minutes)
Order acceptance in the SAGE condition
Proportion of SAGE-suggested orders that the clinician accepts, assessed in the SAGE condition.
Measured: During study session (Day 1)
Time to complete case review
Time (in minutes) taken to review each case and reach a management decision, compared between the SAGE and standard eConsult conditions.
Measured: During study session (Day 1)
Timeline
From the start of the study to its completion; the mark is today. Estimated dates are the sponsor’s plan.
- First posted16 Jul 2026
- Study start17 Aug 2026
- Primary completion28 Aug 2026
- Study completion28 Aug 2026
Resources
- Official record on ClinicalTrials.govThe registry entry this page is built from, with its full change history.
- Other trials for Decision Support Systems, ClinicalStudies of the same condition, open and under way.
- More trials run by Stanford UniversityThe sponsor's other registered studies.
- What the trial phases meanHow a treatment moves from first tests in people to approval.
More details
For doctors and researchers: how the study is designed, who runs it, and its registry IDs.
Study design
- Study type
- Interventional
- Phase
- Phase N/A
- Primary purpose
- Health services research
- Allocation
- Not applicable
- Intervention model
- Single group
- Masking
- None (open label)
- Enrolment
- 16 participants (actual)
Sponsor and investigators
- Lead sponsor
- Stanford University
- Sponsor type
- University, hospital or other
- Responsible party
- Principal investigator, Jonathan Chen, Stanford University
- Investigators
- Jonathan Chen, MD, PhD, Principal investigator, Stanford University
IDs, dates and publications
- ClinicalTrials.gov ID
- NCT07706920
- Sponsor's protocol ID
- 85430
- Acronym
- SAGE
- Status last verified
- Jul 2026
- First submitted
- 10 Jul 2026
- Last updated
- 1 Oct 2026
- Results posted
- No
- Data monitoring committee
- No
- FDA-regulated drug
- No
- FDA-regulated device
- No
- Individual data sharing
- No
Study at a glance
From the registry record, last updated by the sponsor on 1 Oct 2026. Recruitment status is as the sponsor reported it: confirm with the study team.
- Official title
- Physician Usability and Output Quality Evaluation of a Retrieval-Augmented Language Model System for Specialty Medical Consultation: A Human-Computer Interaction Study
- ClinicalTrials.gov ID
- NCT07706920
- Acronym / sponsor ID
- SAGE / 85430
- Keywords
- clinical decision support, electronic consultation, primary care, artificial intelligence
- Study type
- Interventional
- Recruitment status
- Completed
- Enrolment
- 16 participants (actual)
- Lead sponsor
- Stanford UniversityUniversity, hospital or other
- Study start
- 17 Aug 2026 (actual)
- Primary completion
- 28 Aug 2026 (actual)
- Study completion
- 28 Aug 2026 (actual)
- First posted
- 16 Jul 2026 (actual)
- Results
- Not posted in the source record
Clinical summary
The research question as the sponsor registered it. This describes what the study plans to test, not what it found.
The goal of this study is to test an artificial intelligence (AI) tool called SAGE. SAGE helps primary care doctors with questions that often need a specialist. Primary care doctors are the doctors people usually see first. SAGE reviews a case and suggests what a specialist might advise.
The main questions it aims to answer are:
- Do doctors make sound, timely care decisions when they use SAGE?
- Do those decisions match what a specialist would advise?
Researchers will compare the decisions doctors make with and without SAGE.
Doctors in the study will:
- Review made-up patient cases (these are not real patients)
- Make a decision for each case, their usual way and with SAGE
Study design
- Primary purpose
- Health services research
- Allocation
- Not applicable
- Intervention model
- Single group
- Masking
- None (open label)
- Number of arms
- 1
| Arm | Type | Receives |
|---|---|---|
| Primary care physicians | Experimental | Other: SAGE (AI clinical decision support), Other: Standard eConsultPrimary care physicians make management decisions on synthetic patient cases. Each physician reviews four cases in random order: two with SAGE (AI clinical decision support) and two using a standard eConsult approach. |
Who may qualify
- Ages
- 18 years and older
- Sex
- All
- Healthy volunteers
- Accepted
- Age groups
- Adult, Older adult
Key inclusion criteria (4 listed)
- Physician practicing in primary care internal medicine and/or family medicine
- Attending physician, or resident physician at postgraduate year 2 (PGY-2) or higher
- Stanford-affiliated (faculty, staff, or trainee)
- Able to complete a single, approximately 60-minute remote (Zoom) session conducted in English
Key exclusion criteria (3 listed)
- Not currently practicing in primary care internal medicine or family medicine
- Member of the study team or otherwise involved in the development of SAGE
- Unable to complete the remote study session
Eligibility is decided by the study team after screening; this overview does not establish that a patient qualifies. Full inclusion and exclusion criteria.
Interventions
| Intervention | Type | Arms |
|---|---|---|
| SAGE (AI clinical decision support)SAGE is an artificial intelligence (AI) based clinical decision support tool. It generates specialty-informed recommendations for a primary care consultation question. Physicians review the SAGE output while making a management decision for the synthetic case. | Other | Primary care physicians |
| Standard eConsultA standard electronic consultation (eConsult) format, without SAGE. Physicians review this information while making a management decision for the synthetic case. | Other | Primary care physicians |
Primary outcome
Clinical actionability of the clinician's decision
Time frame: Post-session independent review, through study completion (up to approximately 2 months)
For each case, independent reviewers judge whether the physician's decision is clinically actionable, meaning the physician can act on it now rather than wait for a specialist. The outcome is the proportion of cases judged actionable, measured separately for decisions made with SAGE and for decisions made the standard way.
Concordance of the clinician's decision with the specialist reference answer
Time frame: Post-session independent review, through study completion (up to approximately 2 months)
Agreement between the physician's management decision and a specialist reference answer, rated by independent reviewers, with inter-rater agreement summarized. Assessed for decisions made with SAGE and for decisions made the standard way.
3 secondary outcomes
System usability (System Usability Scale, SUS)
Time frame: End of study session (Day 1, approximately 60 minutes)
Order acceptance in the SAGE condition
Time frame: During study session (Day 1)
Time to complete case review
Time frame: During study session (Day 1)
Results and safety
The study is completed, but results are not available in the source record. That does not mean the treatment did or did not work.
Research links
- Official record on ClinicalTrials.govLast updated by the sponsor 1 Oct 2026.
- Individual participant dataSharing planned: No
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Referral and contact
AzTrials does not enrol participants or take referrals. Contact the study team or a site listed below; they decide who can take part. This study is not recruiting at the moment.
Jonathan Chen, MD, PhD principal investigator
Stanford University
1 site in 1 country: see every site and its status.
Questions about this trial
What is this clinical trial studying?
A study testing SAGE (AI clinical decision support) and Standard eConsult in people with Decision Support Systems, Clinical and Referral and Consultation, run by Stanford University at 1 site in United States.
The full registered description is in the About this study section and the official record.
Who may be eligible to take part?
The sponsor lists 4 inclusion and 3 exclusion criteria. Eligibility is decided by the study team after screening, so read the full criteria and contact a listed site.
Is this clinical trial currently recruiting?
The record says: finished, as of the sponsor's last update on 1 Oct 2026. Status can change between updates, so confirm with the study contact before making plans.
Where is the study taking place?
The record lists 1 site in United States. Whether a site is taking part right now should be confirmed with that site. See every site.
What are the possible benefits and risks?
They depend on the study and the treatment, and no study can promise a benefit. The study team explains the known risks during informed consent, before anyone joins; the record itself does not list them.
Are results available for this study?
The study is completed, but results are not available in the source record. That does not mean the treatment did or did not work.
How can a doctor refer a patient or contact the research team?
The record lists no contact. The official record names the sponsor, who can be asked directly. AzTrials does not enrol participants or take referrals.
What does the primary outcome measure?
Clinical actionability of the clinician's decision (time frame: Post-session independent review, through study completion (up to approximately 2 months)). The study lists 2 primary outcomes in all. It is what the study was designed to measure, not a finding.
Where can I read the original study information?
Does a listing mean the treatment is approved or proven to work?
No. A listing means the study is registered. It does not show that the treatment is safe, works, or is approved by a regulator.
How often is this information updated?
AzTrials copies changed records from ClinicalTrials.gov every night and reloads the whole registry every week. The sponsor last updated this record on 1 Oct 2026.