There are many benefits of involving and engaging patients and the public in research and Research & Innovation (R&I) is committed to placing patients and the public at the centre of what we do. We aim to ensure that patient and public involvement and engagement (PPI/E) in our research adds value and impacts on what we do for the benefit of our patients.

We are also committed to making sure that our patients have the chance to participate in clinical trials and encourage our patients to discuss research opportunities with their doctors and nurses.

The Chief Medical Officer, Professor Dame Sally Davies, at NUH R&I

“No matter how complicated the research, or how brilliant the researcher, patients and the public always offer unique, invaluable insights. Their advice when designing, implementing and evaluating research invariably makes studies more effective, more credible and often more cost effective.” Professor Dame Sally Davies, Chief Medical Officer

Many funding bodies, as well as research ethics committees ask grant applicants how they plan to involve patients and public in developing their research.

Patient and Public Involvement can help improve the quality of your research by:

• Helping to make sure that the proposed study methodology is sensitive to potential research participants
• Helping to make participant information more appropriate and accessible for would be participants (in both language and content)
• Helping to ensure that research outcomes are translatable into patient benefit
• Increasing participation in research (by making the research more appropriate, improving the information and including seldom heard groups)

See our series of patient video stories

If you would like to know more about PPI please read the Frequently Asked Questions. You may also find it useful to visit the Useful Links page which provides access to a range of useful PPI information.

You can also contact Kirsty Widdowson, or Jane Flewitt, Patient and Public Involvement/Engagement (PPI/E) Facilitators, if you are undertaking research and would like some support in the field of patient and public involvement.