The study team seeks to understand the unique needs of patients and parents of children who are considering novel experimental gene therapy treatments. The study team will engage patient, caregiver, and healthcare worker stakeholders to understand their attitudes, beliefs, and concerns surrounding these treatments. Based on these insights, the team, with the support of the above stakeholders and an external vendor, will develop web platform offering educational content and decision aids to enhance their experience and overall satisfaction with the process of making treatment decisions. This is especially important as novel therapies for SCD will increasingly include gene editing in pediatric trials over the next two years. These efforts will address significant gaps in the educational material available to those considering gene therapy and (to the team's knowledge) will create a resource that will be the first of its kind.
This prospective mixed-method interview study aims to qualitatively describe the beliefs, attitudes, and informational needs around gene therapy for rare pediatric diseases among patients and parents of children with a rare disease targeted for treatment using gene therapy techniques. Using learned insights, the team will develop an online platform providing educational content and patient decision aids for patients and their families.