Patient and public involvement and engagement (PPIE)
Birmingham Health Partners’ vision for PPIE is to ensure our city is seen as the place where innovative research translates into improved health and economic growth.
Working in partnership with patients, carers and members of the public is key to helping us achieve our vision, and ensuring that the research we do addresses the healthcare needs and priorities that matter most to the people of Birmingham.
We want everyone in Birmingham to have opportunities to be involved in our research, and so all our member organisations are committed to working in partnership with people and communities and learning from people’s insights and perspectives, based on their own lived experiences of healthcare.
Through our NHS-University-NIHR networks, we have formed strong links with local authorities and Voluntary, Faith, Community and Social Enterprise (VFCSE) organisations, enabling us to reflect all aspects of community diversity in our PPIE.
“People-focused research in the NHS simply cannot be delivered without the involvement of patients and the public. No matter how complicated the research or how brilliant the researchers, patients and the public always offer unique, invaluable insight.”
Involving patients in your research
Patient and public involvement and engagement (PPIE) is different to recruiting suitable individuals to clinical trials or research studies. It’s a partnership between the public and researchers, where research is carried out with or by members of the public, rather than ‘to’, ‘about’ or ‘for’ them. This might include:
- Involvement in the choice of research topics
- Assisting in the design of a study
- Advising on the research project as part of a steering group
- Helping to conduct the research, for example interviewing participants
- Communicating the project – for example patient information leaflets
- Raising public awareness of research through open days or on social media
The perspectives of patients and the public, particularly those who have lived through illness or injury, will be different to those of clinicians and academics.
Patients have specialised knowledge of disease, their individual pathway from diagnosis to treatment, and how their quality of life was impacted at different stages. They bring experiences of different care providers, and can provide perspectives and lived experience from a cross-section of ages, genders and ethnicities.
Good PPIE is also known to improve the quality and increase the impact of healthcare research, benefiting- everyone – the patient, researcher, organisation and funders alike.
All BHP partner organisations want there to be truly two-way influence on the future direction of research, and its translation into benefit for patients across all of our partners. We support our clinicians and academics in this endeavour at every stage.
Patients can add value at any stage of the research cycle, and can be involved in numerous ways throughout the life of your research project. If you are part-way through a project and haven’t yet involved patients, it’s never too late. Speak to us about how we can help you to involve them wherever in the cycle your project is at (see below for contact details).
Researchers should include PPIE when:
- Identifying and prioritising
- Commissioning
- Designing and managing
- Undertaking
- Disseminating
- Implementing
- Evaluating impact
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Find guidance documents, policies and procedures here (external links).