Recruiting

AI Care Copilot

Sponsor:

Johns Hopkins University

Code:

NCT07689526

Conditions

Loneliness

Mood

Eligibility Criteria

Sex: All

Age: 65+

Healthy Volunteers: Accepted

Interventions

AI phone companion

Study Details

Brief summary:

Baba is a novel AI "care copilot" designed to improve emotional well-being, cognitive stimulation, and social connection through emotionally present conversations, proactive engagement, and personalized communication. Unlike many existing solutions, Baba operates through SMS text and voice calls, requiring no apps, Wi-Fi, or new devices, making it particularly accessible to older adults.

Conditions

Loneliness

Mood

Study ID

NCT07689526

Start date

Jul 13, 2026

Status verified date

Aug, 2026

Completion date

Jun, 2027

Anticipated

Primary completion date

Jun, 2027

Anticipated

Eligibility Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

Sex: All

Age: 65+

Healthy Volunteers: Accepted

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Lives alone
  • Responds "occasionally" or "most" to the exhaustion questionnaire:

1. "How often in the last week did you feel that everything you did was an effort?"
2. "How often in the last week did you feel that you could not get going?"
  • Willingness and ability to regularly engage with Baba for 12 weeks

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Significant cognitive impairment that prevents consent or participation
  • Inability to communicate via SMS or phone
  • Severe hearing or speech impairment precluding use of voice interaction

Study Design

Enrollment

40 participants

Anticipated

Intervention Model

Single group

Primary purpose

Treatment

Interventions and Outcome Measures

Arms

experimental: Receives calls from BABA

Participants will receive daily or near-daily AI calls over a 12 week period.

Interventions

AI phone companion

Baba uses a fine-tuned large language model to hold conversations with older adults and analyze tone, sentiment shifts, and emotional cues. The system logs call summaries and risk flags for caregiver review and tracks changes over time.

Primary outcome measure

  • Loneliness as assessed by the UCLA Loneliness Scale [ Time Frame: 12 weeks ]
  • Mood as assessed by the Patient Health Questionnare (PHQ-9) [ Time Frame: 12 weeks ]
  • Mood as assessed by the Geriatric Depression scale (GDS) [ Time Frame: 12 weeks ]

Central Contacts and Locations

Central contacts

JACQUELINE M LANGDON, M.S.

410-550-2052jlangdon@jhmi.edu

Peter M Abadir, M.D.

410-550-0576pabadir1@jh.edu

Locations

Johns Hopkins Bayview Campus

Recruiting

Baltimore, Maryland, United States, 21224

Contacts

JACQUELINE M LANGDON, M.S.

410-550-2052jlangdon@jhmi.edu

Peter M Abadir, M.D.

410-550-0576pabadir1@jh.edu

More Information

Sponsor

Johns Hopkins University

Last update posted

Aug 5, 2026

Last verified

Aug, 2026

Keywords

  • Loneliness in older adults

Trial information was received from ClinicalTrials.gov and was last updated on 2026-09-10. This information was provided to ClinicalTrials.gov by Johns Hopkins University on 2026-08-05.