Patient Experience Research Centre

Completing the Feedback Loop: how to improve your Patient and Public Involvement.

9 May 2018

Elspeth Mathie discusses her recent study on the importance of giving feedback to the public in PPI.

Are members of the public wasting their time?

It is widely accepted that Patient and Public Involvement is beneficial for health research. However, imagine spending time giving your opinion and never getting any feedback. Some members of the public ask “am I wasting my time”? Many PPI contributors (lay members, service users, patients, members of the public) say that they contribute to the design of research studies but do not hear if their comments get to the researcher, are useful or make any difference to the research.

What can an engineering PhD student learn from PPI?

Will Kendall

2 May 2018

Biomedical Engineer Shruti Turner reflects on the recent CRISH (Co-creating Innovative Solutions in Health) course and explains that engineers could learn a lot from PPI.

Case study #8: Hackathons as a method for co-developing novel research tools

Will Kendall

10 April 2018

This entry is part [part not set] of 0 in the series Case studies

In conversation with: Thibaut Jombart, Lecturer in Genetic Analysis

Working within: HPRU (Modelling Methodology)

What did you do?

I organised a hackathon (i.e. a coding workshop) called ‘Hackout 3’, which was funded by the Medical Research Council (MRC) and Health Protection Research Unit (HPRU). The event brought together epidemiologists, stakeholders from public health institutions, and members of the public (professional computer programmers) to develop new statistical tools for disease outbreak analysis and response.

Using social media to engage the public in your research

Will Kendall

5 April 2018

In this guest blog, Imperial‘s Cathy Thomas offers advice on how to use social media to engage (and involve!) the public in your research. What have your experiences with using social media for engagement been? Share your experiences in the comments.

Why bother with social media?

There are over one billion active users on Facebook and over 100 million monthly Instagram users – which means that if you’re looking to connect with members of the public, it’s worth considering how social media and other digital tools could support or enhance your engagement activity.

The useful thing about social media is that it’s a discursive medium that encourages sharing and participation, so rather than simply using it as a tool to promote what you’re doing, there will be ways in which it can support two-way engagement.

Introducing our Patient & Public Involvement Resource Hub

Philippa Pristera

1 March 2018

Public involvement in health and biomedical research is increasingly seen as both desirable and necessary. Desirable because the public’s vast and varied experience can bring important perspectives to research. Necessary because many funders now require it.

That’s why we’ve developed the Patient and Public Involvement (PPI) Resource Hub – to guide researchers through the process of actively involving patients and members of the public in their research and projects.

Case study #7: Parents with experience of preterm birth help shape Imperial research

Philippa Pristera

20 February 2018

This entry is part [part not set] of 0 in the series Case studies

In conversation with: Dr Lynne Sykes, Academic Clinical Lecturer Working within: Institute of Reproductive & Developmental Biology

What did you do?

With the help of the NIHR Imperial BRC PPI award, we were able to set up a Patient and Public Involvement (PPI) group to help shape our preterm birth research at Imperial. The funding enabled us to invite 10–15 participants to three PPI meetings over a course of 12 months. We now have an established group with around seven core members and one nominated representative. The meetings have been a great way to present, and get feedback, on our current and future research plans.

What does PPI look like in the Imperial NHS Trust?

Will Kendall

19 February 2018

Readers of this blog will be familiar with Patient and Public Involvement in a research setting. But what does PPI look like within health care services? Here Imperial NHS Trust Lay Partners Mariam Mohammed and John Norton share their perspectives.

Take your research to QPR Football Club

Will Kendall

14 February 2018

Find out how Imperial researchers can engage the public in their work at QPR’s annual Community Day.

PPI funding proposals: How to win over our judges

Philippa Pristera

12 February 2018

The hardest thing about submitting a grant application is often not knowing what the judges are looking for. So, with the call now open for this year’s NIHR Imperial BRC Patient and Public Involvement (PPI) grant scheme funding, but the deadline fast approaching, we thought we’d ask both past winners and members of the judging panel to share their thoughts and insights on what makes a winning patient and public involvement proposal…

Case study #6: Evaluating a TB awareness animation

Philippa Pristera

2 February 2018

This entry is part [part not set] of 0 in the series Case studies

In conversation with: Alice Halliday, Research Associate Working within: HPRU in Respiratory Infections

What did you do?

We secured a £1,000 grant from the British Society for Immunology to develop an animated film about latent tuberculosis (TB) infection, which was matched by funding from the NIHR Health Protection Research Unit (HPRU) in Respiratory Infections. So together with my colleagues, Mica Tolosa-Wright and Ishita Marwah, we developed the script and initial version of the film over a period of about 3 months (Feb–April 2017).

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