BMJ  2003;326:1329 (14 June), doi:10.1136/bmj.326.7402.1329

Letter

Involving patients in a primary care research meeting worked well

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

EDITOR—Patients rarely participate in the planning, conduct, or interpretation of medical research.^{1 2} We explored involving patients in a primary care research meeting, through the PARTNERS (Patients and Researchers Together at NAPCRG Evaluating Research Studies) project. We invited six patients to participate in the annual meeting of the North American primary care research group. They varied by age, sex, education, occupation, and nationality. None was involved in health research, services, or advocacy. The study was approved, and the patients gave written informed consent.

The experience was gratifying. Patients participated enthusiastically, showing great interest in the process and content of the meeting. The patients were very similar to the professionals in their evaluations of 131 research presentations, using 5 point Likert scales. Patient ratings were not significantly different from professional ratings on the following dimensions: appropriateness, originality, importance, methods, presentation, and audience interaction. Only on validity of conclusions did patients . . . [Full text of this article]

Department of Family Medicine, Box 356390, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98185-6390, USA bphillips@fammed.washington.edu

Division of Behavioural Medicine, Department of Family Practice, Faculty of Medicine, 5804 Fairview Avenue, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada V6T 1Z3

CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    StumbleUpon    Technorati    What's this?

Relevant Articles

ATAC trial did not report interim results

Michael Baum, Aman Buzdar, and Anthony Howell
BMJ 2003 327: 1050. [Extract] [Full Text]

Systematic review of involving patients in the planning and development of health care

Mike J Crawford, Deborah Rutter, Catherine Manley, Timothy Weaver, Kamaldeep Bhui, Naomi Fulop, and Peter Tyrer
BMJ 2002 325: 1263. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

Participatory research maximises community and lay involvement

Ann C Macaulay, Laura E Commanda, William L Freeman, Nancy Gibson, Melvina L McCabe, Carolyn M Robbins, and Peter L Twohig
BMJ 1999 319: 774-778. [Extract] [Full Text] [PDF]

Online poll

Find out more here>> and here>>