Partnership-focussed Principles-driven Online co-Design (P-POD): a mixed-methods evaluation of a novel online co-design process.

PurposeCo-design involves stakeholders in designing rehabilitation interventions that impact their health (end-users) or professional lives (clinicians and researchers). Partnership-focussed Principles-driven Online co-Design (P-POD) is proposed and evaluated as an authentic approach to adapting research co-design into an online environment. Materials and methodsA community-based participatory research approach scaffolded the co-design process and convergent mixed-methods evaluation. P-POD involved 10 stakeholders (parents, clinicians, coaches, and researchers) in eight 90-minute workshops to co-design a circus-based rehabilitation intervention to improve participation for preschool-aged children born preterm (premmies). P-POD was evaluated via anonymous surveys during workshops and semi-structured interviews upon completion of the process. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics and reflexive thematic analysis. ResultsThe resulting co-designed intervention is "CirqAll: preschool circus for premmies". Evaluation of P-POD indicated adherence to guiding principles of stakeholder involvement and co-design. Themes describe participants experiences of the supportive online culture, room for healthy debate, power-sharing, and multiple definitions of success. ConclusionsP-POD appears to provide an authentic transition of research co-design into an online environment. P-POD was successfully used with stakeholders to produce a paediatric rehabilitation intervention, and benefits from the online approach align with, and extend on, those reported in the literature on in-person co-design approaches.