The following tips can help you get started on including PPI in your research projects; other guidance and training is also available (e.g. at https://www.invo.org.uk/):

1. Mentorship, Supervision, Collaboration

Invite a health services researcher and PPI expert to provide guidance throughout your project on research design, methods and practices to ensure your study captures evidence relevant to patient-focused outputs.

2. PPI Group 

Ask people with experience of your health service pathway and your study’s health problem or context to be part of your PPI group. Their role will be to provide expert comment and feedback on your research question, design, materials and outputs at different stages throughout the research cycle. You may have different people in PPI groups at different points in your study. Some projects use small focus groups where all representatives come together to comment on materials; others ask PPI representatives to comment independently.

3. Steering Group Membership  

Ask a PPI representative to sit on your project’s steering group and be involved in decision making about your study’s research design and processes. The PPI representative should be familiar with the health problem and some of the associated management regimens or treatment options, so they may be a former patient or a patient’s relative. Their role is to bring their perspective to feedback on the research process, the research burden of the project and the validity of the findings.

4. Study Design and Methods 

Consider carrying out a study to elicit evidence on patients’ experiences of the health problem and services, e.g. an analysis of routinely collected data to assess healthcare usage, a systematic review of prior patient experience data, an environmental scan of resources or policy, or a qualitative survey of patients’ experiences and decisions.

5. Collaborate with ResCenPI 

ResCenPI has over 80 independent researchers with expertise across health and research settings in developing, implementing and evaluating patient-focused interventions. They can advise and collaborate on projects, supervise and mentor people as part of their career progression, deliver training, signpost to other resources and provide feedback on research outputs.