Patient and public involvement

Public involvement is about members of the public working in active partnerships with researchers and research organisations. It’s also known as patient and public involvement, or PPI.

We used the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) definition of public involvement: “Public involvement in research is research carried out ‘with’ or ‘by’ members of the public rather than ‘to’, ‘about’ or ‘for’ them.” See the diagram by Louise, one of our public contributors that explains how members of the public can get involved at every stage of the research process.

Patient and public involvement (PPI) was essential to our research.

There were lots of ways to get involved with our work, from advising on specific studies, to feeding back on our plain English summaries, to popping along to one of our research conversations.

Here’s what some of our public contributors have to say about working with us:

“I will use these valuable skills for the rest of my life”
– Nino, from our Young People’s Advisory Group

“I’ve seen how much the public voice is valued”
– Adele, from our PPI Strategy Group

“I’m honoured to be part of this research programme”
– Roy, Health Research Ambassador