Implementation of the First Round of Co-Creation Workshops

In the final quarter of 2024, all thirteen pilot partners of the COMFORTage project successfully concluded their first round of Co-Creation Workshops, guided by White Research. These workshops, organized under Task 2.2, “People-Centred Design and Co-Creation,” aimed to foster collaboration among key stakeholder groups—healthcare professionals, patients, caregivers, and researchers—to better understand users’ needs in each pilot and support the development of COMFORTage prototypes tailored to those needs.

All the Co-Creation Workshops adhered to the same guidelines, incorporating two core co-creation sessions tailored to each pilot’s unique characteristics. The first session included a needs-identification exercise designed to guide participants in creating a Blueprint Persona—an approach introduced by RSCN to represent the realistic health and care needs of specific societal groups. In the second session, pilots showcased their specific COMFORTage tools or interventions to gather valuable feedback from participants. While tools like Pepper (the social robot) and the Healthentia app were praised for their interactive features and user engagement, participants also mentioned important challenges, such as high costs, limited accessibility, and data privacy.

Key Insights from the sessions

A total of 168 stakeholders from eight countries participated across the thirteen pilots, resulting in the creation of 18 initial Blueprint Personas that offer a diverse and inclusive representation of society. The identified needs from the stakeholders included the following:

• Patients, including older adults and participants in medical studies, raised concerns about losing their autonomy and facing loneliness. They expressed a strong interest in tools and technologies that enable meaningful social connections with their family members, friends, caregivers, and healthcare professionals. In addition, this group expressed the need for intuitive, user-friendly solutions that provide clear, accessible information about their health condition. Early diagnosis of dementia and frailty also emerged as a critical area of concern. This underscores the importance of IT and digital literacy training to help patients engage effectively with technological solutions.
• Caregivers emphasised the need for tools that support daily routines and patient health monitoring. They also highlighted the emotional and psychological strain of caregiving, calling for solutions that support them to manage these challenges. Meanwhile, healthcare professionals prioritised tools that reduce workload and enhance the delivery of healthy lifestyle interventions for patients. They, too, expressed a need for emotional and psychological support to cope with the pressure of their demanding roles. On the other hand, medical students and researchers identified the need for better communication with doctors and other specialists to ensure more accurate data and address potential biases in research.

Next steps 

The insights gathered from these workshops will serve as the foundation for the second round of Co-creation Workshops, scheduled to take place by the end of 2025. This next phase will broaden public engagement and facilitate co-creation and brainstorming with relevant stakeholders at each pilot site. Furthermore, during these sessions, pilots will refine, expand, or Validate the Blueprint Personas as necessary. They will also further incorporate stakeholder feedback into the optimisation of COMFORTage prototypes.

As the project progresses, we will prioritise addressing these challenges through collaborative efforts and ongoing engagement and co-creation with key stakeholders. Our goal is to ensure that the COMFORTage tools developed effectively match the diverse needs of each user group, striking a balance between technological innovation and human-centric care. By fostering inclusivity and tackling the real-world concerns of patients, caregivers, healthcare professionals, and researchers, COMFORTage is committed to delivering solutions that genuinely improve the quality of life for all.