Patient and Public Involvement Archives - Patient Experience Research Centre

Why did nobody ask us?! Reflections and findings from co-produced research into children’s vaccine uptake.

4 September 2024

In conversation with Dr Helen Skirrow, Lena Choudary-Salter and Habiba Haque

A recap on our research project

Not enough children in the local area around Church Street, Westminster, London where the Mosaic Community Trust is based get their routine vaccines. We therefore worked together on our project that Lena Choudary-Salter (Mosaic’s CEO) named ‘Why did nobody ask us?!’ to reflect that local parents’ views who live in an area of low vaccine uptake had not previously been listened to. We have written about our partnership working before. Children missing out on their routine vaccines is a problem not just in Church Street but in lots of areas of London and other urban areas of the UK, which are poorer and have more ethnically diverse populations.

Three key takeaways from our participation in the Research Engagement Network (REN) community roadshows

Maria Piggin

28 August 2024

In this blog post, Dr Kirsten Bell, Senior Research Fellow in Anthropology in the Patient Experience Research Centre (PERC), Imperial College London, shares reflections from PERC’s participation in the Integrated Care System North West London funded Research Engagement Network roadshows.

In early 2024, the Integrated Care System (ICS) North West London funded a collaboration led by NIHR Applied Research Collaboration (ARC) Northwest London and the Community Voluntary Sector Organisations in the boroughs of Ealing, Hounslow, Brent and Hillingdon to host a series of roadshows at their community centres. The goal of the roadshows was to reach out to people in community settings to talk about research, in the hopes of raising awareness of – and interest in – research amongst a more diverse public.

Artificial Intelligence in healthcare: exciting but complex

Halle Johnson

22 November 2022

This entry is part 6 of 11 in the series People's Research Cafe at the Great Exhibition Road Festival 2022

This blog is part of a series showcasing the People’s Research Cafe which took place on the 18th and 19th June 2022 in South Kensington, London as part of the Great Exhibition Road Festival.

What is a People’s Research Café?

The People’s Research Cafe is a café with a twist. Visitors are welcomed to sit down at a table co-hosted by an Imperial College researcher and a public contributor whose role is to help the conversation flow freely. Over a free hot drink, visitors find out about the researcher’s project and will be asked for their opinions on it.

Public involvement in prematurity research at Imperial Women’s Health Research Centre

Philippa Pristera

30 September 2019

This entry is part 3 of 5 in the series PPI Awards: Round 4 ReportsThis entry is part [part not set] of 0 in the series Case studies

In conversation with: Lynne Sykes, Clinical Lecturer; Rachel Akers, Senior Research Midwife; and Malko Adan, Senior Research Midwife

Working within: Prematurity Research, Women’s Health Research Centre at Imperial Institute of Reproductive & Developmental Biology

What did you do?

We held face-to-face meetings with patients who took part in our preterm research project meetings to garner acceptability and opinions for new research techniques. We chose this method because it allowed our patients to share their experiences with others and catch up with the research team, who they saw for a large amount of time during their pregnancy.

Involving women in the design of maternal cardiovascular research

Philippa Pristera

6 September 2019

This entry is part [part not set] of 0 in the series Case studiesThis entry is part 2 of 5 in the series PPI Awards: Round 4 Reports

In conversation with: Olive Adams, Research Midwife

Working within: Centre for Fetal Care (NIHR Imperial BRC Theme: Maternity Cardiovascular)

What did you do?

Our research department, the Centre for Fetal Care, undertakes studies on maternal cardiovascular health and other conditions in pregnancy at Imperial and with European collaborators.

We formed a group of women who were either affected by conditions addressed in our research or who were in the pre-conception period (the weeks or months when a woman or couple decides to have a child).

Our top five blogs of 2018

Will Kendall

19 December 2018

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

By Professor Helen Ward

Director, Imperial Patient Experience Research Centre

Imperial Patient Experience Research Centre, aka PERC, started blogging about 18 months ago with this Welcome to our Blog post. The blog was set up to “share the latest learnings and news from the PPI community, points of views from the team on the advances and issues of public involvement, case studies of good involvement practice to inspire new ideas, and a whole host of other top tips and personal pointers”.

Since then we’ve published 25 blogs, ranging from case studies of good practice and opinion pieces, through to notices about events, training, and top tips for applicants for our grants scheme.

Case Study #10: An interactive PPIE workshop on kidney transplant rejection

Will Kendall

13 September 2018

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

We are delighted to announce the NIHR Imperial BRC PPI Grant Scheme is now open until Friday 19 October 2018, 5pm. The purpose of this grant scheme is to support motivated researchers and their teams to undertake meaningful and impactful public and patient involvement that will shape their research and enhance the translation of biomedical research from bench to bedside. As this is our fourth round of funding, we spoke with Dr Candice Roufosse, Senior Clinical Lecturer at the Centre for Inflammatory Diseases about how winning a PPI Grant helped improve their research.

The PPI Café – Open for Ideas

Will Kendall

17 May 2018

At the 2018 Imperial Festival we opened the Patient and Public Involvement (PPI) Café for the first time. A new PPI methodology – a hybrid between a science café and a more typical PPI workshop – it was designed by five Imperial research centres in partnership with Patient and Public members.

Our aim was simple: to give the public a flavour of PPI by contributing to real-life research projects. As well as getting fresh public input into some projects, we wanted to try something novel in PPI and to have some fun.

Why a café?

Despite their modern association with tax-dodging and precarious labour, coffee houses have for centuries been associated with free discussion and the exchange of ideas.

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

Will Kendall

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.