Table 1.

Stakeholder recruitment strategies

Stakeholder group	Panel	Recruitment methods
People born with gastroschisis	Personal experience panel	Mailing lists, websites and Facebook groups of UK and international gastroschisis support groups.
Parents of children born with gastroschisis		Mailing lists and meetings for a Parental Advisory Group established by the National Perinatal Epidemiology Unit.
Paediatric surgeons	Neonatal panel	Direct approaches to experts known to members of the SMG and those identified on a search of the British Association of Paediatric Surgeons (BAPS) register as having a special interest in management of children with gastroschisis. BAPS mailing lists, newsletters and website. Direct approach to clinical leads at each paediatric surgical centre in the UK for the BAPS-CASS gastroschisis study.
Neonatologists	Neonatal panel	Direct approach to experts known to members of the SMG. Mailing lists, bulletin and website of the British Association of Perinatal Medicine.
Fetal medicine specialists	Neonatal panel	Direct approach to experts known to members of the SMG. Mailing list of the fetal medicine clinical study group of the British Maternal and Fetal Medicine Society.
Specialist nurses	Neonatal panel	Direct approaches to experts known to members of the SMG. Mailing list of the Neonatal Nurses Association and the National Neonatal Surgical Benchmarking Group.
Paediatricians	Non-neonatal panel	Direct approach to experts known to members of the SMG. Mailing list of the British Society of Paediatric Gastroenterology Hepatology and Nutrition.
Researchers	Non-neonatal panel	Direct approaches to experts known to members of the SMG and prominent gastroschisis researchers identified through searches of the literature.
Specialist paediatric surgical nurses	Neonatal panel	Direct approach to experts known to members of the SMG.
Dietitians	Non-neonatal panel	Direct approach to experts known to members of the SMG. Mailing list of the British Society of Paediatric Gastroenterology Hepatology and Nutrition.

BAPS-CASS, British Association of Paediatric Surgeons Congenital Anomalies Surveillance System; SMG, Study Management Group.