Embrace: Evidence-Based Social Support Activation (2026-2027)

Background

Serious illness, major surgery and memory disorders can create emotional strain, isolation and uncertainty for patients and caregivers. Yet research consistently shows that supportive messages from loved ones can help boost hope, connection and resilience. Many people want to help but often struggle with what to say, how to say it or how to offer support in a sustained and meaningful way.

Embrace is a digital platform created in collaboration with Duke Health that activates a patient’s own circle of family and friends to send short, guided video messages. In its first year, the 2025-2026 team co-designed message prompts, developed “what to say/not to say” guidance and piloted simple onboarding workflows in oncology clinics. Early testing showed promising improvements in patient connection and emotional well-being.

Building on this foundation, the next phase of Embrace expands beyond oncology to address the needs of patients in surgical specialties and individuals living with memory disorders such as mild cognitive impairment or Alzheimer’s-spectrum diseases. This expansion reflects a broader question: how can structured, evidence-based social support improve outcomes across diverse health journeys?

Project Description

This project will refine and evaluate Sustained Embrace— a multi-week series of brief, guided prompts tailored to diagnosis, treatment stage or disease progression. Students will lead human-centered design cycles, test usability, and assess the emotional and practical impact of sustained social support for patients and caregivers.

The project includes two major stages across three clinical domains (oncology, surgery and memory disorders):

Stage A: Optimization and Usability

Conduct rapid co-design workshops with patients, caregivers and clinicians
Build diagnosis- and phase-specific prompt libraries
Develop “what to say / not to say” guidance and caregiver-initiated flows
Test usability using think-aloud protocols, accessibility reviews and the System Usability Scale
Produce captions, large-text templates and translations for equity and ease of use

Stage B: Pragmatic Evaluation

Launch randomized waitlist-control pilots to compare Sustained Embrace to standard care
Collect brief validated measures of hope, connection, affect and caregiver burden
Analyze adoption metrics such as enrollment, message completion and timing
Conduct qualitative interviews to identify tone, timing, barriers and facilitators
Refine prompt libraries and onboarding flows using iterative feedback

Across the year, students will work in interdisciplinary subgroups — Design/UX, Clinical Workflows, Data & Evaluation, and Outreach & Equity — while collaborating closely with clinical partners in oncology, surgery and memory disorders clinics.

Anticipated Outputs

Multi-specialty Sustained Embrace sequences for oncology, surgery and memory disorders
Prompt libraries with diagnosis- and phase-specific guidance
Clinic-ready toolkits: Epic smartphrases, QR/SMS invite scripts, patient/caregiver onboarding materials
Accessibility resources: captions, large-text templates, translated materials
Usability and feasibility datasets and de-identified analytics
Student-authored abstracts, posters and a short methods paper
Implementation playbooks for clinical use

Student Opportunities

Ideally, this project team will include 3 graduate students and 10 undergraduate students representing diverse backgrounds and interests. Students from psychology, neuroscience, global health, nursing, medicine, social work, computer science, data science, human-centered design, public policy, communication, linguistics and related fields are encouraged to apply. Bilingual students and individuals with caregiving experience are especially welcome.

Team members will gain experience in:

Human-centered design, co-design workshops and usability testing
Qualitative interviewing, thematic analysis and mixed-methods evaluation
Survey design, brief validated outcome measures and REDCap workflows
Data visualization, dashboards and reproducible analysis in R or Python
Implementation science and health communication
Creating accessible and culturally relevant patient-facing materials

Graduate students will have opportunities for leadership roles, project management and mentorship of undergraduates. Students may participate in optional Summer 2026 work to prepare materials, pilot test workflows and onboard into clinical settings.

Timing

Summer 2026 – Spring 2027

Summer 2026 (optional):

Student onboarding and training
Build diagnosis- and phase-specific prompt libraries
Prototype Sustained Embrace flows
Conduct accessibility updates
Set up REDCap and analytics pipelines
Identify clinical champions and conduct dry-run pilots

Fall 2026:

Stakeholder interviews and co-design sprints
Launch pilots in oncology, surgery and memory disorders clinics
Conduct usability testing and refine prompts and flows
Collect baseline and mid-sequence surveys
Begin dashboard development and dyad recruitment

Spring 2027:

Expand pilots to additional surgical services
Run waitlist-control evaluation
Collect endline and 30-day follow-up data
Conduct mixed-methods analysis
Prepare student-authored abstracts, posters and methods paper
Release clinic toolkit v1

Summer 2027 (optional):

Finalize analyses and manuscripts
Prepare grant proposals
Update implementation playbooks
Produce translation updates, clinical handoffs and student capstones

Crediting

Academic credit available for fall and spring semesters