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.
In conversation with: Dr Lynne Sykes, Academic Clinical Lecturer Working within: Institute of Reproductive & Developmental Biology
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.
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.
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…
In conversation with: Alice Halliday, Research Associate Working within: HPRU in Respiratory Infections
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).
In conversation with: Aime Boakye, Junior Study Coordinator and PPI/E Lead Working within: HPRU in Respiratory Infections
What did you do?
It was a primary aim of our NIHR Health Protection Research Unit (HPRU) in Respiratory Infections to seek meaningful patient and public input in our three research areas: Influenza, Tuberculosis and Other Acute Respiratory Infections. Therefore, we appointed two patient representatives (for Flu and Tuberculosis) who were invited to our key strategic and public meetings.
Additional to that, in January 2017, we set up a panel of patients and members of the public who either had experience of respiratory conditions or were interested in our three research areas.
In conversation with: Raheelah Ahmad, NIHR Knowledge Mobilisation Fellow Working within: NIHR Health Protection Research Unit in Infections and Antimicrobial Resistance
Our team (Raheelah Ahmad, Tim Rawson, Enrique Castro-Sánchez, Esmita Charani, Luke Moore and Alison Holmes) set out to explore if and how citizens would be willing to take part in setting priorities for research funding.
In conversation with: Rachael Ryan, Research Assistant Working within: Centre for Psychiatry, Department of Medicine
The Healthy Start, Happy Start (HSHS) study aims to help parents better understand their child’s communication and behaviour, and to learn different ways of reacting. We set up a Study Advisory Group (SAG) and asked them for ideas on participant recruitment and materials. The group has developed over time to also consider how to explain different parts of the research to participants and how to best keep participants engaged.
Co-CReating Innovation Solutions for Health (CRISH) is an original two-day multidisciplinary course that aims to bring together health sector members, including patients, to support the co-creation of innovative research, policies, products or services that will promote and improve health. The course is delivered by EIT (European Institute of innovation & Technology) Health, of which Imperial College is a partner.