Federal Project Grant Award Summary

The University of Utah received a $133,812 Project Grant award from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) under the Child Health and Human Development Extramural Research program (CFDA 93.865), effective August 1, 2026, through July 31, 2027. The award funds development and pilot testing of the My Ultimate Stroke Toolkit (MUST), a user-centered digital intervention designed to provide personalized post-discharge education, training, and technology support for stroke survivors and their caregivers. The project addresses significant gaps in current stroke education, which is often unstructured and fails to accommodate stroke-related impairments or digital literacy and technology access challenges that affect patient recovery and quality of life.

During the initial phase, the funded work will establish foundational understanding of real-world post-discharge education needs by enrolling 36 stroke survivor-caregiver dyads stratified by digital literacy and technology access levels. The research will collect longitudinal outcome data at discharge, three months, and six months post-discharge, measuring stroke survivor quality of life, functional status, falls, hospital readmissions, and caregiver strain, supplemented by qualitative interviews with 20 dyads. Findings will inform the co-development of a user-centered theoretical framework and the design of the MUST digital intervention with tailored educational content and integrated digital literacy support, followed by usability testing and pilot program evaluation.