Building the evidence base for the best public involvement in clinical trials
Editors-in-Chief Sophie Staniszewska and Richard Stephens highlight the importance of patient and public involvement in clinical trials in this blog for International Clinical Trials Day.
Article of the Month
The trials and triumphs of co-producing an evaluation plan: A principles-focused evaluation
Our Article of the Month for January explores co-production, involvement in mental health, and involvement in program evaluation, all of which are topical, and in the latter case, still rare in terms of publications. We were drawn in particular the lightbulb moment; the realisation that while researchers on a project talk to and work with each other between the formal meetings, the patient/public partners on the same project often do not. The paper looks at the implications for power relationships, but beyond that there is probably an argument for patient advocates to have (or create?) much stronger networks than they already do, and thus for somebody somewhere to fund such organisations. If we believe in genuine co-production in research, we need to find ways to level the playing field for the patient partners.
Richard and Sophie
