Public & Patient Involvement (PPI) in Research
Research carried out ‘with’ or ‘by’ members of the public rather than ‘to’, ‘about’ or ‘for’ them.
(Definition by INVOLVE)
Public and patient involvement in research means that the public and patients are involved in planning and doing research from start to finish and help tell the public about the results of the research.
‘Public‘ means everyone with an interest in health and social care as a public service including potential users of services.
‘Patient‘ means people who use services such as patients, service users, clients or their carers.
Why PPI
Engaged research and PPI improve the quality and relevance of research and are increasingly required by national and international health research funders.
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To improve the quality of our research
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To improve the value of our research
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To increase the impact of our research
People with lived experience of healthcare conditions, family members and public stakeholders have unique perspectives that can improve the quality of the research, right from research design through to dissemination of results and translation into healthcare practice. Therefore, you should consider PPI part of, and integral to, the whole research process.
It is the RCSI’s vision to embed dynamic, meaningful and high-impact PPI throughout all RCSI-led research.
Patients and the public can be involved at all stages of a research project
https://www.gu.se/ image by Dr Kath Maguire.
PPI Recruitment
If you are wondering how to identify, recruit PPI collaborators to set up a PPI panel potential avenues for recriutment could be:
- Local or national patient organisations of charities. Often, organisations have a group of patients and/or family/carers ready to take part in PPI
- Social media forums for various illnesses and conditions e.g. Facebook groups
- Advertisments in GP surgeries, hospital boards, or local newspapers