Effect of a behavioral nudge on adoption of an electronic health record-agnostic pulmonary embolism risk prediction tool: a pilot cluster nonrandomized controlled trial.

OBJECTIVE: Our objective was to determine the feasibility and preliminary efficacy of a behavioral nudge on adoption of a clinical decision support (CDS) tool.

MATERIALS AND METHODS: We conducted a pilot cluster nonrandomized controlled trial in 2 Emergency Departments (EDs) at a large academic healthcare system in the New York metropolitan area. We tested 2 versions of a CDS tool for pulmonary embolism (PE) risk assessment developed on a web-based electronic health record-agnostic platform. One version included behavioral nudges incorporated into the user interface.

RESULTS: A total of 1527 patient encounters were included in the trial. The CDS tool adoption rate was 31.67%. Adoption was significantly higher for the tool that included behavioral nudges (39.11% vs 20.66%; P  < .001).

DISCUSSION: We demonstrated feasibility and preliminary efficacy of a PE risk prediction CDS tool developed using insights from behavioral science. The tool is well-positioned to be tested in a large randomized clinical trial.

TRIAL REGISTRATION: Clinicaltrials.gov (NCT05203185).