New Resources To Improve Patient And Public Involvement In Health Research

The University of Birmingham has developed a new tool to facilitate patient and public involvement in impactful research on long COVID. Detailed in a Nature Medicine paper, researchers from the Institute of Applied Health Research, NIHR Birmingham Biomedical Research Centre, and NIHR Applied Research Collaboration West Midlands evaluated patient and public engagement in the Therapies for long COVID in non-hospitalized individuals (TLC) Study. The tool assists researchers in planning, implementing, and evaluating projects involving patient and public groups, ensuring best practices are followed. Despite tight constraints, the TLC Study Group successfully maximized patient involvement, creating two checklists for future studies to foster meaningful engagement and improve health research outcomes.