The Patient Bridge Role: a new approach to involvement in large research programmes.

Lead Applicant: Beccy Summers

Lead Member: Exeter

Patient and Public Involvement (PPI ) in research involves active collaboration between public members and researchers in equal partnership. PPI in health research ensures the research benefits those most impacted by the research and is a well-established necessity of high-quality research. PPI for large programmes of work involving multiple studies frequently rely on a single PPI group that oversees the entire programme. We believe this ‘traditional’ approach can negatively contribute to the power imbalance between researchers and public members, since PPI members have a very wide remit and are unable to embed themselves fully in all aspects of the research. In a recent paper (https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2024-094521), we presented a new approach that we developed- the ‘Patient Bridge Role’, which was designed to promote a more equal distribution of power between public members and researchers on large research programmes. The Patient Bridge Role involves a core patient advisory group (PAG) of approximately eight public members, and each work package within the programme had a named contact, called the Patient Bridge, from within the PAG.

We have been taking the Patient Bridge approach over the last five years on a large cancer programme (NIHR 201070). We aim to use this funding to co-produce a ‘how to guide’ to support taking the Patient Bridge approach, which is accessible and relevant to groups that who are not often involved in research. To do this, we plan to interview public members and researchers that have experience of the Patient Bridge approach. Each interview will be approximately 1-hour and will be transcribed automatically via Microsoft Teams or Zoom. From the interviews, we will:

1. Identify the responsibilities and duties of the Patient Bridge and researchers that are considered key to delivering the Patient Bridge role.
2. Explore the perceived challenges of and barriers to the Patient Bridge role, and how these can be overcome.

We will subsequently identify common themes across the interviews relating to these. Then, we will invite 6 public members and 5 researchers with no experience of the Patient Bridge approach to work with us across three workshops (two with public members and one with researchers) to use the information gathered in the interviews to co-produce an accessible ‘how to guide’ to support people who are not often involved in research to take the Patient Bridge approach in large research programmes. The final ‘how to guide’ will be made available via the University website and accompanied by a webinar around how to use the guide aimed at public members and researchers. An academic article will also be co-produced.

Amount: £2,200