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BurnoutNCT07342673

Vital Coach: A Study of Resiliency in Medical Students

A study testing Arena Strive in people with Burnout, run by Wake Forest University Health Sciences at 1 site in United States.

Completed

Finished. The study has ended and is not enrolling. Results may be posted on the official record.

Official record
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Trial summary

Medical students often begin training with psychological and physiological health metrics superior to their age-matched peers. By graduation, however, rates of depression, anxiety, and physiologic dysregulation are markedly higher, reflecting the cumulative strain of long study hours, high-stakes examinations, and the… Read more about this study

Who is it for?
Ages 18 to 60 yearsHealthy volunteers can take part
Conditions the study is for
Burnout
What is being tested?
Arena Strive
Could I receive a placebo?
No, everyone receives an active treatment
How many people
36 participants
Where
1 siteUnited States
Study dates
16 Jan 2026to 14 May 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 to 60 years
  • All sexes
  • Healthy volunteers accepted
  • Adult

Who may be able to join

  • active first year Wake Forest School of Medicine medical students
  • have an Android or iOS smart phone
  • are willing to download the Arena Strive application

Who cannot join

  • under the age of 18; or over the age of 60
  • pregnant at enrollment or during course of study
  • any self-reported cardiac conditions that may impact heart rate and heart rate variability

Trial locations and contacts

1 site in 1 country.

United States1 site

  • Wake Forest University Health Sciences

    Winston-Salem, North Carolina, 27157

Other trials in United States

About this study

Official title: Vital Coach: A Study of Resiliency in Medical Students Using Wearable Technology and Personalized Wellness Coaching

Medical students often begin training with psychological and physiological health metrics superior to their age-matched peers. By graduation, however, rates of depression, anxiety, and physiologic dysregulation are markedly higher, reflecting the cumulative strain of long study hours, high-stakes examinations, and the emotional burden of early patient care. Despite this, few medical schools provide structured, evidence-based tools for students to develop resiliency and recovery skills before clinical rotations begin.

Read the detailed description

This gap represents both a health crisis and an educational opportunity. Burnout originating in medical school often persists into residency and practice, diminishing empathy and professionalism, and contributing to long-term attrition. Existing wellness offerings are largely reactive, relying on voluntary counseling or broad wellness sessions that fail to provide individualized insight into students' physiological readiness or stress recovery capacity. Moreover, schools lack objective, continuous data to pinpoint when students are physiologically stressed to tailor timely support.

Against this backdrop, this study proposes evaluating a structured performance coaching and biometric feedback approach in the context of scheduled academic stressors. Arena Strive is a digital coaching platform that integrates a virtual human performance coach, wearable-derived biometric data, and a focused skills curriculum adapted from other high-stress domains and tailored to frontline healthcare workers. This novel intervention has proven effective in significantly reducing burnout and enhancing professional fulfillment and self-valuation in a large health-system through an 8-week intervention.

Conditions
Burnout
Being tested
Arena Strive
Keywords
wellness coaching, performance coaching, biometric feedback, psychological stress
Medical subject headings
Burnout, Psychological, Stress, Psychological

What participants receive

What participants receive. In a randomised study each person is assigned to one group by chance.

  • Arena StriveBehavioural

    Also called digital coaching platform

    integrates asynchronous coaching, two virtual coaching sessions with a high-performance medicine coach, physiological data from wearable sensors, and a focused curriculum of performance tools tailored to frontline healthcare workers.

Study groups in NCT07342673
Study groupRoleWhat they receive
Arena StriveExperimentaldigital coaching platform, which integrates asynchronous coaching, two virtual coaching sessions with a high-performance medicine coach, physiological data from wearable sensors, and a focused curriculum of performance tools tailored to frontline healthcare workers.
Receives: Behavioral: Arena Strive

What is being measured

The primary outcome is the main question the study is designed to answer.

  1. Heart Rate Variability

    Mean daily nocturnal Heart Rate Variability (HRV): Higher = Better

    Measured: Weekly through Week 13

  2. Resting Heart Rate (Beats per Minute)

    daily nocturnal Resting Heart Rate (RHR): Lower = Better

    Measured: Weekly through Week 13

  3. Sleep Duration (minutes)

    Mean nightly sleep: Higher = Better

    Measured: Weekly through Week 13

  4. Sleep Consistency (minutes)

    SD of mid-sleep time: Lower = Better

    Measured: Weekly through Week 13

Secondary outcomes (2)

  1. Change in Perceived Stress (Perceived Stress Scale PSS-4) Scores

    To score the Perceived Stress Scale 4 (PSS-4), first, reverse the scores for questions 2 and 3 (0 becomes 4, 1 becomes 3, 2 stays 2, 3 becomes 1, and 4 becomes 0). Then, add up the scores for all four questions. The total score will range from 0 to 16, with higher scores indicating greater perceived stress.

    Measured: Weekly through Week 13

  2. Change in Burnout (Maslach Burnout Inventory MBI-GSS) Scores

    MBI-GSS scoring involves summing responses for each of its three subscales: emotional exhaustion, cynicism, and professional efficacy, which are rated on a 7-point frequency scale from 0 (never) to 6 (daily). To determine burnout, high scores on exhaustion and cynicism indicate higher burnout, while low scores on professional efficacy suggest greater burnout. These subscale scores are then interpreted separately to understand the level of burnout for each dimension. Each item is rated on a frequency scale (e.g., 0 to 6), and higher or lower scores on each subscale indicate different levels of burnout.

    Measured: Week 13

Timeline

From the start of the study to its completion; the mark is today. Estimated dates are the sponsor’s plan.

  1. First posted15 Jan 2026
  2. Study start16 Jan 2026
  3. Primary completion14 May 2026
  4. Study completion14 May 2026

Resources

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
Prevention
Allocation
Not applicable
Intervention model
Single group
Model description
first-year medical students from Wake Forest School of Medicine
Masking
None (open label)
Enrolment
36 participants (actual)
IDs, dates and publications
ClinicalTrials.gov ID
NCT07342673
Sponsor's protocol ID
IRB00140462
Status last verified
Dec 2025
First submitted
8 Dec 2025
Last updated
28 Jul 2026
Results posted
No
Data monitoring committee
No
FDA-regulated drug
No
FDA-regulated device
No
Individual data sharing
No

Questions about this trial

What is this clinical trial studying?

A study testing Arena Strive in people with Burnout, run by Wake Forest University Health Sciences 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 3 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 28 Jul 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?

Heart Rate Variability (time frame: Weekly through Week 13). The study lists 4 primary outcomes in all. It is what the study was designed to measure, not a finding.

Where can I read the original study information?

On the ClinicalTrials.gov record for NCT07342673.

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 28 Jul 2026; AzTrials last refreshed its copy on 7 Nov 2026.

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