On 7 July 2022 PREMSTEM held its second co-creation workshop, with the aim of developing the ideas brought forward in the previous session and refining the key stakeholders to influence through communication during our research journey.  

In this session we welcomed new and returning faces in a group representing parents, parent associations, researchers, and clinicians. 

The warm-up task highlighted an important aspect of the co-creation methodology. Using a technique used in improv, three of the participants suggested ideas of a holiday activity they could do together. Over three rounds, they were asked to use slightly different wording in their responses to the other person’s suggestions. The exercise showed the importance of language when we’re considering other people’s views: in the first round, the language led to a dismissal of the other person’s suggestion. By the final round, the sentences became more inclusive and built on the other ideas – one of the main points of co-creation!

The focus of this session was to take the next step in addressing the overarching challenge we are tackling through co-creation: How can we lay the groundwork for societal and professional acceptance to perform clinical trials with stem cells in medically fragile preterm infants? 

This involved refining the stakeholder groups identified by participants in the previous workshop. It was striking to see that the conversations uncovered new ideas and viewpoints not touched upon by those who came to the first session. However, the consensus on the key three groups we need to communicate with remained the same: parents/patient representatives, researchers/clinicians, and regulatory bodies/policy makers.  

Workshop three will further develop this work and will take place on Wednesday 27 July 2022 (8-11am Central European Time or 4-7pm Australian Eastern Time). If you’d like to attend, please sign up on Eventbrite.