[Hiring] Research Fellow: AI-moderated Interviews at Scale: The Trust in Healthcare Study @Surgo Health

Role Description

Surgo Health is requesting proposals for research projects building on our dataset focused on the healthcare trust landscape. While declining public trust in the U.S. healthcare system is widely documented through conventional survey methods, the underlying, individual-level drivers of this erosion often remain unclear.

To address this gap, our dataset explores trust dynamics across medical providers, health institutions, social media, and artificial intelligence, while highlighting actionable pathways for restoring confidence. The data encompasses both a detailed questionnaire battery and in-depth qualitative dialogues gathered by Derin®, our AI-moderated interviewing system.

Designed as a randomized, counterbalanced study, the dataset enables direct methodological comparisons between standard survey approaches and AI-moderated conversational interviews. It spans roughly 2,000 respondents across two distinct research panels, with 6,000 completed interviews alongside extensive survey batteries, standard demographic indicators, and population weighting factors.

We are seeking research proposals that:

• Advance the narrative on trust & healthcare — contribute to contemporary thinking on this subject in the U.S.
• Leverage the conversations — projects should examine the reasoning, experiences, or context revealed when respondents elaborate, going beyond what closed items already capture.
• Use the dataset — research questions should be answerable with the current dataset and not require funding for new data collection.
• Be publishable — proposals should aim for peer-reviewed publication, with rigorous methodology.

We encourage proposals that move beyond showing that conversational interviews produce more detail, focusing instead on for whom, under what conditions, and through what mechanisms conversational data adds value. Projects will be given access to the full dataset and documentation, and can integrate external data (such as ACS, provider density, or state health policy indicators) via the harmonized geographic and demographic variables in the dataset.

Research Focus Areas

• Trust in healthcare — drivers of trust erosion and recovery; public perspectives on AI in healthcare; decisions made against medical advice; institutional versus individual trust; and perceptions of the pharmaceutical industry.
• Survey methodology — variations in response quality by education, age, income, geography, and political views; order and carry-over effects across modes; effort signatures; construct validity of trust items; and turn-level drop-off in conversational surveys.
• Interviewer design and conversation dynamics — probing strategies and sequencing; respondent responses (elaboration vs. new disclosures); interviewer neutrality; and managing sensitive disclosures.
• Computational methods — analysis pipelines for transcript data, including predicting closed-ended responses from conversational text (and vice versa).

Proposals should be 1-2 pages and outline:

• Core contribution — how the research builds beyond existing literature.
• Use of qualitative data — what insights the conversational responses provide beyond standard closed-ended items.
• Practical application — key decisions or practice changes informed by the findings.
• Analytical plan — key variables, panel-specific estimates, and analytical approaches for randomized and observational factors.
• Publication goals — target journals and expected outputs.

Program Structure

Surgo Health will select two to three proposals based on:

• Practical relevance and research depth.
• Feasibility with available data.
• Alignment with Surgo Health research priorities.
• Potential for publication in high-impact journals.

Selected projects will receive:

• Stipend amount: $6,000 in compensation upon successful submission of draft to Surgo.
• Weekly touch-point meetings on the project.
• Full access to the study dataset.
• Methodological and analytical support from Surgo's research team.
• Onboarding resources, including the data dictionary and reporting standards.
• Lead authorship and publication support.

Surgo Health will reserve final sign off on the narrative of the manuscript. We will also provide methodological guidance and support compliance with reporting standards.

Timeline, Milestones, & Expected Output

• Earliest project start date: 26th October 2026.
• Paper completion: 19th February 2027.
• Final manuscript submission: 26th February 2027.

Key project milestones:

• Approved analytical plan (Weeks 1–2).
• Preliminary results review.
• Draft manuscript internal review.
• Final manuscript submission.
• One journal manuscript prepared for peer review.
• Documented analysis code reproducing all reported figures from the dataset.