Aim 4

In order to better inform current and future research objectives, we are interested in understanding more about the clinical priorities of patients living with a split thickness skin graft, people at risk for undergoing a skin graft procedure in the future (such as firefighters) and surgeons who perform split thickness skin grafts.  

To that end, we are in the process of conducting a longitudinal study of patients’ experiences and expectations of the split thickness skin graft and willingness to participate in a future clinical trial of dermal stem cells. This project is a concurrent mixed-method design study that is one of four parts in the over-arching, pre-clinical study. We expect to produce explanations for understanding burn survivors’ experiences and behaviors through scientific methods of statistical analysis. We also expect to reveal how our participants understand and rationalize their experiences and expectations in their own terms.

Individuals at risk of undergoing a skin graft procedure in the future as well as surgeons performing skin grafts have/will be asked to complete surveys and share in focus groups regarding their opinions about using stem cells to improve the split thickness skin graft in the future.