Involving patients can lead to better research: Patient and Public Involvement event facilitated by Research Design Service South Central
We should be ambitious about patients’ involvement in research, and it should start long before hospital admission.’ That was the verdict of Simon Denegri, the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Director for Public Participation and Engagement in Research and keynote speaker at a highly commended awareness-raising event led by the Patient and Public Involvement team at Research Design Service South Central (RDS SC).
If you are preparing a research grant application for the NIHR, you will be required to provide evidence of considered Patient and Public Involvement (PPI). Active involvement of patients and the public in the research process, from formulating research questions to disseminating results, can lead to more relevant research, clearer outcomes and faster uptake of new evidence. But if you are a newcomer, PPI can seem daunting.
Patient and Public Involvement: where, why and how, facilitated by RDS SC’s PPI experts Claire Ballinger and Ali Bowser at Southampton’s Eastpoint Centre last November, was an opportunity to share expertise and ideas about effective PPI. Over 135 researchers and members of the public attended the event, in a collaboration between partner members of the Patient & Public Involvement Network in the South and sponsored by RDS SC and Solent NHS Trust.
Workshop topics included creative ways of disseminating research findings beyond the journal and conference, writing in plain English, involving young people, strategic use of social media and the NIHR OK to Ask/Research Changed my life campaigns.
Delegates commended the event as ‘an excellent, full-on day of useful information.’
RDS SC, managed by the University of Southampton, is one of ten regional support centres for health and social care research applications in England and involves collaboration with the universities of Oxford, Oxford Brookes and Portsmouth.
If you are preparing a research grant application, you can gain free advice and support on effective PPI from the RDS SC team based at Southampton General Hospital. Access the service by completing a ‘Request for Support’ form at:
www.rds-sc.nihr.ac.uk
If you are a patient or relative who would like to join our PPI group, RDS SC would also love to hear from you. Please email Ali Bowser at
A.L.Bowser@soton.ac.uk
The Research Design Service (RDS) is funded by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR).
The RDS supports research teams to develop and submit high quality applied health and social care grant applications to NIHR and other national peer-reviewed funding programmes.