Patient And Public Involvement (PPI)

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What is Patient and Public Involvement (PPI)?
INVOLVE defines PPI as “research being carried out ‘with’ or ‘by’ members of the public and the patients rather than ‘to’, ‘about’ or ‘for’ them.” (NIHR, n.d.) This includes, for example, working with research funders to prioritise research, offering advice as members of a project steering group, commenting on and developing research materials, undertaking interviews with research participants. The 2009 NHS Constitution pledged to give patients access to information about research and the Health and Social Care Act 2012 requires NHS organisations to promote it. One therefore might expect a happy coalition between clinicians and the patients. However Simon Denegri, National Institute for Health …show more content…

However PPI does not just refer to researchers raising awareness or engaging and creating a dialogue with the public and their patients. PPI also looks further than the recruitment of patients and the public in clinical trials. However, these different activities – involvement, engagement and participation – are often linked and can complement each other. INVOLVE uses these definitions to distinguish between the three ideas.
Participation is stereotypically seen as something just for patients, however using the public is just as important. There is often an idea that patients can only get involved in clinical trials and that any opinions they may have about their research should be held back as ‘the doctor knows best’. This phrase can often be heard throughout members of the public. With this comes an unhappy patient as they do not feel that they have the chance and the right to speak out when they are not happy with their care or not happy with the research being done on and around them. It is a very toxic ideal and is what PPI tries to …show more content…

(Anon., 2016) However PPI can often be seen as a tick box to get the funding needed for your research. People have both preconceptions and misconceptions around PPI models, regularly stressing the amount of time needed to try and explain their research to the public as they are not ‘professionals’. However I believe that PPI has benefits for the patients, the public and the

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