• On  November 22^nd, Hospital Sant Joan de Déu Barcelona hosts an informative day that aims to explain to young people how they can change the world of paediatric research.
• The Scientific Council of the Hospital, which is formed by 16 children and teenagers who advise the researchers, has promoted the initiative.

The children and teenagers of the Scientific Council of the Hospital Sant Joan de Déu Barcelona, ​​who for two years have been advising the researchers about paediatric clinical trials, now want to bring science to schools. To this end, the hospital has organized, in collaboration with Farmaindustria and the Spanish Foundation for Science and Technology, an informative day on research and development of drugs that will count with the participation of 400 high school students.

What happens before a drug reaches the pharmacies? How much time and how much money is invested? How can somebody participate in a trial? What is different about research on children? And what can children and schools do to change the world of paediatric research? These are some of the questions that will be answered in the opening keynote speech that will be held by Ms. Amelia Martin, coordinator of FarmaIndustria innovative drug platform. Dr. Jaume Mora, Scientific Director of the Oncology and Hematology Service of the Hospital Sant Joan de Déu, will address issues related to ethics in paediatric research.

Also, alongside the RareCommons Hospital project, students will be able to discover how social networks are currently being used to improve paediatric research of rare diseases. RareCommons has been selected as a project of excellence and is funded by the RecerCaixa program, promoted by the ACUP and "La Caixa Social Work" with the collaboration of ACUP.

Rare Commons has gathered significant samples of patients from different research projects that surpass today those published in the scientific literature. The platform allows the collection of clinical data to study the natural history of genetic diseases and, at the same time, allows the creation of an exhaustive registry of patients to screen candidates for future studies of new therapeutic options.

During the meeting, the teenagers who take part in the Scientific Council of Sant Joan de Déu and whose name is KIDS Barcelona, will also announce some of the projects they have carried out since 2015, when they became part of a pioneer council in Spain. Up to now, they have developed a guideline for writing the informed consent, addressed to children over 12 years old and older who are participating in a clinical trial.

Teenagers of the Scientific Council are also working on the development of an interactive application that shows what is clinical trial and what are its phases; in the creation of a comic book that tries to answer the main questions that a child may have when he/she is proposed to participate in a trial; and in a website that will provide information to patients and families about clinical trials as well as educational resources for schools in order to spread this area of ​​medical science.

The Scientific Council of the Hospital Sant Joan de Déu was created in early 2015 in an attempt to take a step further in the process of involving children and teenagers in the decision-making process of the centre. It was done after three years of  the constitution of a youth council of patients who advised the management of the hospital on issues of internal management and provision of care services. Their contribution —proposing ideas, expressing needs, giving their opinion, etc. —can be used to improve and adapt clinical trials to the needs of the participating patients. Another goal is to promote scientific dissemination in schools and educational centres that wish to join the initiative. The 22^nd of November is part of this context.

With the foundation of the Scientific Souncil, Sant Joan de Déu joins the international program KIDS (Kids and Families Impacting Disease through Science) in which hospitals and health consortiums from all around the world take part. The Scientific Council of Sant Joan de Déu, the first and unique in Spain, had the honor to host last summer the international congress of KIDS groups that are integrated within the organization ICAN (International Children Advisory Network).