Co-creation facilitates translational research on upper limb prosthetics

Jones, Hannah and Dupan, Sigrid and Coutinho, Maxford and Day, Sarah and Desmond, Deirdre and Donovan-Hall, Margaret and Dyson, Matthew and Ekins-Coward, Thea and Kenney, Laurence and Krasoulis, Agamemnon and McIntosh, Doug and Memarzadeh, Kaveh and Small, Edward and Wheeler, Gemma and Wu, Hancong and Nazarpour, Kianoush (2021) Co-creation facilitates translational research on upper limb prosthetics. Prosthesis, 3 (2). pp. 110-118. ISSN 2673-1592 (https://doi.org/10.3390/prosthesis3020012)

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Abstract

People who either use an upper limb prosthesis and/or have used services provided by a prosthetic rehabilitation centre, hereafter called users, are yet to benefit from the fast-paced growth in academic knowledge within the field of upper limb prosthetics. Crucially over the past decade, research has acknowledged the limitations of conducting laboratory-based studies for clinical translation. This has led to an increase, albeit rather small, in trials that gather real-world user data. Multi-stakeholder collaboration is critical within such trials, especially between researchers, users, and clinicians, as well as policy makers, charity representatives, and industry specialists. This paper presents a co-creation model that enables researchers to collaborate with multiple stakeholders, including users, throughout the duration of a study. This approach can lead to a transition in defining the roles of stakeholders, such as users, from participants to co-researchers. This presents a scenario whereby the boundaries between research and participation become blurred and ethical considerations may become complex. However, the time and resources that are required to conduct co-creation within academia can lead to greater impact and benefit the people that the research aims to serve.

CORE (COnnecting REpositories)