Evidence map›Paper›PMID 41860987›Full record

ArticleCritical care explorations2026

Feasibility of a Large Language Model Chatbot to Support Parental Understanding in the PICU.

R Brandon Hunter, Satid Thammasitboon, Sreya Rahman, Sriya Kakarla, Pamela Petersen, Shelley Kumar, Thomas Rappold, Sanjiv Mehta

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Critical care explorations, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
1citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

1 citing paper in PubMed.

  1. Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

8 authors.

R Brandon HunterDepartment of Pediatrics, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX.ORCID 0000-0002-0267-7846
Satid ThammasitboonDepartment of Pediatrics, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX.
Sreya RahmanDepartment of Pediatrics, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX.
Sriya KakarlaMcGovern Medical School, Houston TX.
Pamela PetersenDepartment of Pediatrics, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX.
Shelley KumarDepartment of Pediatrics, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX.
Thomas RappoldDepartment of Pediatrics, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX.
Sanjiv MehtaDepartment of Anesthesiology and Critical Care Medicine, The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

objectivesTo evaluate the feasibility of a large language model (LLM)-based chatbot for answering parental questions in the PICU and inform design of a randomized controlled trial (RCT).

designProspective single-arm feasibility study conducted from August 2024 to December 2024.

settingQuaternary PICU. SUBJECTS: Fourteen parents of children admitted to the PICU.

interventionsParents engaged in 10-minute sessions with a HIPAA-compliant GPT-4o- (Generative Pretrained Transformer 4o, OpenAI, San Francisco, CA) based chatbot prompted with patient-specific electronic health record (EHR) data. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN

resultsFeasibility was assessed through four criteria: parental engagement and satisfaction, provider perceptions, accuracy and safety, and recruitment. Of 16 eligible parents, 14 enrolled and completed all procedures (87.5% recruitment rate). Parents asked a median of six questions (range, 3-13) with 96% positive real-time satisfaction ratings. Post-interaction surveys demonstrated high perceived value (median, 5.0/6.0 across all domains; Net Promoter Score [NPS] +57). Of 1225 chatbot-generated sentences evaluated, 99.3% were accurate with all eight errors classified as minor (inter-rater reliability: Gwet's AC2, a chance-corrected inter-rater agreement coefficient, = 0.98; 95% CI, 0.97-0.99). Healthcare providers rated response quality highly (median, 5.0/6.0), although physicians expressed greater comfort with bedside use of the tool than nurses (5.0 vs. 4.0; p = 0.004). Sample size calculations using NPS as the primary endpoint suggest enrolling 135 participants would provide adequate power for a future RCT.

conclusionsAn EHR-informed LLM chatbot demonstrated high parental engagement and satisfaction, positive provider perception, and high accuracy and safety, supporting progression to a RCT.

Indexed as

Intensive Care Units, PediatricParentsAdultChildChild, PreschoolComprehensionElectronic Health RecordsFeasibility StudiesFemaleHumansInfantLarge Language ModelsMaleProspective Studiesartificial intelligenceelectronic health recordslarge language modelspatient educationpediatric intensive care unit

Identifiers

PMID41860987
PMCPMC13008162

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Registered trials

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.