“Public involvement in research is research carried out ‘with’ or ‘by’ members of the public rather than ‘to’, ‘about’ or ‘for’ them.”
What is Patient and Public Involvement?
Patient and public involvement is where patients and members of the public are actively involved as partners in research projects and in research organisations. ‘Patient and public’ includes patients, carers and people who use health and social care services (now or in the past), as well as people from organisations, such as community groups, that represent people who use services.
Examples of how patients and the public can get involved are:
- identifying research topics and questions of importance to patients and service users
- offering advice and feedback as a member of a project’s steering group or a public involvement group
- helping to develop information leaflets for people taking part in research that are easy to read and understandable
- supporting the researchers with carrying out the research, for example by interviewing people taking part
- helping to share the results of research and get research evidence into practice
How ARC is involving patients and public
We have ‘lay member’ roles in groups and committees that oversee the planning and organisation of ARC EoE. These roles enable patients and public representatives to draw on their lived experience and use their perspective to influence the decisions we make about our work and research.
Our researchers, in our different themes, involve patients and public in the research they carry out. This includes in the ways outlined above. They are also working to engage with people who live in our ‘Populations in Focus’, so we can understand better what the needs of these communities are and work to make sure our research makes a positive difference to the lives of the people who live there.
Learn the latest about our Populations in Focus projects here