Wrriten by YPAG GOSH Member Oceiah
GOSH YPAG (Sept 2022) were yet again involved in this ground-breaking project to personalise childhood cancer treatment. Us lucky members, were not disappointed to hear how the ChromaDose team have progressed their innovative research following our ideas in our July meeting. This time we were in two different sub groups looking at the next stage of the project, then sharing our group discussions within the main YPAG group. YPAG members were very quick on their feet with suggestions as well as using their ever-faithful jamboard.
Lisa and Stefan asked YPAG Group A: “What features would make the main character/mascot more or less inclusive? These were some of the ideas: Colourblind friendly; appropriate for all audiences and culturally aware, family friendly and age appropriate; ascetically pleasing; inclusive to all diversities so stereotypes are avoided.
Various ideas were discussed from animals, aliens, mythical creatures, cartoons and being science based such as cells; interestingly no human type mascots were chosen. However, most agreed it would be good if patients could choose their own mascot from a selection relevant to the project, e.g it changes colour to indicate the different levels of dosage from too high to too low.
Group B had a lively chat with our expert science knowledge whilst the group was asked to consider: ‘’How can we best convey the concept of therapeutic drug monitoring.’ The goldilocks parable and a shoe analogywere discussed and the suitability for different ages and being up to date.
The responses included: to use AI; animations; science experiments or videos. This was a very popular topic among all especially as young people are the co-creators of multimedia. YPAG members are looking forward to welcoming the Chromadose project back to our November meeting and finding out how we can become part of other opportunities, from the PPI Steering Group, focus groups and even be involved with the designing and illustrations!