Public Involvement

It all started with a question: What makes you feel alive? Imperial’s Cancer Research UK Centre and the Patient Experience Research Centre designed a feedback wall to engage and involve members of the public in research. The Feedback Wall is a conversation starter. It allows researchers to engage individuals with their research in an enjoyable and anonymous way. It can open conversations around decision-making in healthcare, inform research priorities and give people a voice in every part of the research cycle. The feedback wall can be used as a standalone tool or as an ice-breaker to invite people to other activities. This activity was supported by the Wellcome Trust, People Like You, NIHR Imperial Biomedical Research Centre, Imperial College Experimental Cancer Medicine, and Imperial CRUK Centre.

Members of the NIHR Imperial BRC present their views on public involvement in research during the NIHR Imperial BRC Open Day 2016. Imperial BRC researchers engage and involve a wide variety of people in their research, from the general public and healthy volunteers to patients with personal experience of health conditions and carers of patients. We continuously seek to advance and innovate patient and public involvement and engagement in our research, measure impact and evaluate these activities.

Highlights of a round-table discussion with researchers, clinicians and members of the NIHR Imperial BRC Patient and Public Panel during the NIHR Imperial BRC Open Day 2016. Those involved recognised a changing culture of public involvement in research. Public involvement was seen as becoming more systematic and being multi-professional. Requirements such as the need for scientists and researchers to speak the same language with patients/public were acknowledged. Allocating/obtaining resources for public involvement, representation of patients/public, developing sustainable PPIE strategies, maintaining ongoing relationships with patients/public and embedding PPIE throughout research projects were identified as challenges to effective public involvement.

This video is from a virtual launch of Di Sherlock's "Written Portraits". During a poetry residency, Di talked to people at Maggie’s West London and Charing Cross Hospital in London who are affected by, and working with, cancer. Her poetry practice involves writing a ‘portrait’ from these conversations. She then gives back a poem. The editing process goes to and fro between Di and the ‘sitter’ until they consider the portrait is a likeness or resemblance that they also like. This launch event included the following readings: (1) 'Vital Conversation' read by Clive Llewellyn; (2) 'Rewilding the Self' from 'The Art Class' read by Lin Sagovsky; (3) 'The Three Musketeers' read by Chris Barnes; and (4) 'Everyday Heroines' read by Susan Aderin. The full 'Written Portraits' are available at: peoplelikeyou.ac.uk/poem/. This was part of the research project ‘People Like You’: Contemporary Figures of Personalisation, supported by the Wellcome Trust: peoplelikeyou.ac.uk/