Periodic Reporting for period 1 - LEARN-DO (Learning to Donate)
Berichtszeitraum: 2024-03-01 bis 2025-08-31
Without blood donors, there are no blood products to transfuse and no plasma for pharmaceutical drug production. Four million patients are annually treated with blood derived products in Europe alone, given by voluntary donors. Yet, as little as 2-3% of the population is registered as blood donor and donor numbers have been decreasing during the last decades. At the same time, the demand for specific blood products is increasing. Hence, it is crucial that a country’s donor pool is sufficient to ensure access to every needed blood type and plasma product. Targeted information and recruitment of potential donors as well as retention of current donors is vital to meet these demands.
LEARN-DO developed and marketed two fun and interactive knowledge interventions in order to stimulate key motivators and overcome key barriers for individuals to become a blood donor.
We targeted two main stakeholder groups with these interventions. Individuals (children and adults) who can be potential future donors and blood collection agencies that need to inform and recruit future donors to meet the demands for blood products. We proposed two installation elements that manipulate key barriers and motivators of blood donation.
1) A Donor Picture Pillar that provided information about blood donation and showed patient and donor stories. This pillar was tested during several recruitment events where the national blood bank exhibited to inform and recruit new donors.
2) A "Donation Game" to decrease fears and psychological distance towards blood donation and stimulate conversations about donation among participants. This game for two players to work together and overcome obstacles to get the blood bank, make a donation and save three (!) lives was also tested during several recruitment events where the national blood bank exhibited to inform and recruit new donors.
Organisation and Impact. The project was organised in four work Packages (WP). The overarching project management (WP1, led by the PI at the host institute) ensured that the impact proposition did include all scientific (WP2), technical/educational (WP3) and business (WP4) aspects. LEARN-DO aimed at thoroughly impacting the knowledge, awareness and recruitment of future donors. As such they aid at improving the recruitment strategy of blood collection agencies by making them more evidence-based, fun and interactive, and targeted to specific groups, including families and members from ethnic minorities.
LEARN-DO developed and marketed two fun and interactive knowledge interventions in order to stimulate key motivators and overcome key barriers for individuals to become a blood donor.
We targeted two main stakeholder groups with these interventions. Individuals (children and adults) who can be potential future donors and blood collection agencies that need to inform and recruit future donors to meet the demands for blood products. We proposed two installation elements that manipulate key barriers and motivators of blood donation.
1) A Donor Picture Pillar that provided information about blood donation and showed patient and donor stories. This pillar was tested during several recruitment events where the national blood bank exhibited to inform and recruit new donors.
2) A "Donation Game" to decrease fears and psychological distance towards blood donation and stimulate conversations about donation among participants. This game for two players to work together and overcome obstacles to get the blood bank, make a donation and save three (!) lives was also tested during several recruitment events where the national blood bank exhibited to inform and recruit new donors.
Organisation and Impact. The project was organised in four work Packages (WP). The overarching project management (WP1, led by the PI at the host institute) ensured that the impact proposition did include all scientific (WP2), technical/educational (WP3) and business (WP4) aspects. LEARN-DO aimed at thoroughly impacting the knowledge, awareness and recruitment of future donors. As such they aid at improving the recruitment strategy of blood collection agencies by making them more evidence-based, fun and interactive, and targeted to specific groups, including families and members from ethnic minorities.
The project was organised in four work Packages (WP). The overarching project management (WP1, led by the PI at the host institute (HI), Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (VU)) ensured that the impact proposition included all scientific (WP2, led by the PI and her PhD student Alexandra Ciausescu at the HI), technical/educational (WP3, projectpartner IJsfontein) and business (WP4, projectpartner Sanquin Blood Supply) aspects. To kick-off the project, we organised an introduction session for all members of the project team to get to know each other and express the respective expectations and interests. To get more acquainted with the content, we organised a workshop to determine the goals, context, and frameworks of the project. This session was attended by the PI, the PhD candidate who performed the work of WP2, the two creative directors of IJsfontein, and a business developer at IJsfontein. During this session, we filled a canvas to set out the direction to the project. The project idea and research questions were formulated and mapped on the data that would be needed to answer them. This project idea was presented to the Sanquin marketing department, responsible for donor recruitment, to examine whether they would be interested in using the installations developed within the project. The three parties, PI (VU), IJsfontein, and Sanquin agreed to collaborate and commit to the tasks of LEARN-DO.
Main achievements:
- Development, prototype testing, and delivery of the two installations, i.e. Donor Picture Pillar and Donation Game
- Marketing the installations in major information and recruitement events by Sanquin
- Evaluation of the use and potential improvements
Main achievements:
- Development, prototype testing, and delivery of the two installations, i.e. Donor Picture Pillar and Donation Game
- Marketing the installations in major information and recruitement events by Sanquin
- Evaluation of the use and potential improvements
LEARN-DO demonstrated breakthrough innovation potential in at least three ways. First, it is, to the best of our knowledge, the first mobile and interactive installation about blood donation. It supports participants to learn and initiate conversations about the subject in their social group and connect with real patients and other blood donors. Our installations provide a multi-faceted and interactive experience, especially suited for groups including children and adolescents. Moreover, it provides an exciting and fun environment in which inidividuals, e.g. visitors of a fair, learn about, engage, and virtually ‘experiment’ with blood donors and donation. As our previous research has shown, non-donors often lack information about and are unaware of the need for blood and plasma. Therefore, we mention the current (low) numbers of blood donors, the increasing demand for plasma, and the importance of donor-patient matching in the installations. Second, by focusing directly on children, adolescents, and adults LEARN-DO expands the scope of more traditional, teacher-implemented information and knowledge transmission, e.g. during high school lessons. Both installations are self-explenatory and easy to use. Participants have the possibility to interact directly with the information and connect it to real cases, real people and therefore engage both cognitively and emotionally with the subject of blood donation. In addition, they personalize their learning experience by choosing how and with which installation elements they want to engage, and they have the possibility to make information self-relevant by experiencing donating blood. Third, we took advantage of the social dimension of learning by designing installation elements that can be experienced by multiple persons at the same time, e.g. families or peer groups. As such, communication inside the group can be triggered and centered around the subject of blood donation.