24/11/2020 combacte-magnet News Item

Patients and Public Involvement in Antimicrobial Research

Involving patients and the public in all research activities can be of great benefit to research. This can include applying for research funding, project design, writing patient information and consent forms through to advising on the dissemination of research finding. It can improve the relevance of research to patients and ensure it addresses patient needs, ensure research is ethically sound and is not too burdensome for patients, improve recruitment and retention to clinical trials and increase the chances of the research being put in to practice.

In recent years there has been a rapidly growing interest in Patient and Public Involvement (PPI) in antimicrobial research. Such involvement in health research has been advocated on ethical grounds, it improves the quality of research and prevents waste of resource where research may not be relevant to patients.

Involving patients in setting the direction of research can help ensure that research addresses patients’ needs. Moreover, when patients are involved in the design and running of clinical trials it will improve the participation rates and can contribute to the successful dissemination of findings. – COMBACTE-MAGNET’s WP6i study team

The team of researchers from North Bristol NHS Trust and the University of the West of England in the UK who are partners in Work Package 6i of COMBACTE-MAGNET, have been working to develop Patient and Public Involvement in research within COMBACTE.

THE BENEFITS OF THE PPI TOOLKIT

In 2018 the WP6 team produced a Toolkit and Practical Guide to PPI which provides systematic and evidence-based guidance on how and when to involve the public in medicines development research, in particular antimicrobials. The PPI toolkit is primarily for principal investigators, research teams, and pharmaceutical companies. It is also potentially useful to other academics and public contributors.

Although the PPI Toolkit focuses on antimicrobial medicines development research, its content is applicable to other areas of medicines development, and to other areas of acute clinical research.

PPI Toolkit

Patients and Public Involvement in Antimicrobial Research 1

“Researchers involved in antimicrobial research may be unaware of the potential benefits of PPI. The difficulty of building up and sustaining relationships with relevant groups of patients, given the temporary nature of many microbial infections and the lack of specific patient organizations can be a reason for the limited interest in PPI.”