People interested in discussing patient involvement in health research are invited to attend a seminar on the Challenges and Perspectives of Public and Patient Involvement in Health Economics Research .
The event, which will also be of interest to researchers, academics, and healthcare professionals, will take place at the Institute for Lifecourse and Society (ILAS ), North Campus, NUI Galway from 10.30am to 3.15pm on Friday August 30.
Public and Patient Involvement (PPI ) is increasingly recognised as an essential element of health research. PPI is defined as research carried out with or by members of the public.
Health Economics provides a framework for considering how society should allocate its limited health resources (for example, money, staffing, equipment ) to meet people's demands and needs for health care services, health promotion, and prevention.
The rationale for involving patients and the public in health economics research is that it promotes research quality and relevance to service users.
Supported by the Health Research Board, people the seminar will inform people about public and patient involvement from various perspectives, including: Why we should have PPI in our health economics research; The researcher's perspective; The patient's voice in healthcare; How we can reflect and evaluate PPI, for example, how the research may have been improved through PPI; and The current state of play regarding PPI in health research from the perspective of the Health Information Quality Authority (HIQA ).
People attending the event will be encouraged to reflect on issues such as: Why involving patients and the public in health economics research is important? What is the value of PPI? How can PPI in health economics research be evaluated? Is there a role for the public and patients in health technology assessments?
Dr Michelle Queally, a lecturer in economics at the JE Cairnes School of Business and Economics at NUI Galway, said the seminar will focus on how to build partnerships which allow both patients and the public influence health economics research being conducted at the university as well as evaluating this involvement.
"Our overarching aim in this seminar is to show how health economics research might be informed by PPI. We will hear from health economists' experiences of PPI through case studies, reflect on our learnings, and make suggestions for future research practice, and frameworks that we can apply in order to evaluate what contribution PPI has made to a specific project."
Key Speakers at the seminar will include Dr Conor Teljeur of the Health Information Quality Authority (HIQA ) who will talk about how PPI fits into the health technology assessment processes in Ireland and Liz Goodwin, a research fellow in Health Economics, at the University of Exeter who will speak about involving people with multiple sclerosis in health economics research.
Ms Goodwin will focus on using a task-based approach to work together on a specific aspect of research design and will share some of the lessons learned from this experience. Kristina Staley, the director of the specialist consultancy TwoCan Associates will talk about patient involvement in research that benefits researchers by informing their thinking and plans, while Andy Gibson, an associate professor in PPI at the University of West Leeds, will discuss involving the public in health research to ensure that research questions and outcomes reflect the issues that matter to patients and the public.
The seminar is hosted by NUI Galway’s Health Economic and Policy Analysis Centre and PPI Ignite @ NUI Galway research teams. For full seminar details and registration log on to www.eventbrite.ie and type in Public and Patient Involvement
