COMBACTE-MAGNET WP6i Conducts Productive PPI Workshop in Utrecht

On 20^th October, COMBACTE-MAGNET’s WP6i Bristol-based team conducted a Patient and Public Involvement (PPI) workshop at UMC Utrecht, for researchers.

The team have been developing a PPI toolkit in collaboration with an acute infection and microbiology patient panel, also based in Bristol. The toolkit aims to provide evidence-based practical guidance on how to carry out PPI throughout the antimicrobial medicines development lifecycle. It is primarily targeted at principal investigators and research team members, but is also potentially useful to other academics, commercial organizations (i.e. pharmaceutical companies), and patient and public contributors.

The toolkit is in the final stages of development and is expected to be complete by the end of 2017.

The one-day workshop was attended by ten participants, mostly involved in COMBACTE projects. It comprised brief presentations with emphasis placed on discussions, covering topics identified by participants as being important and relevant to their own research. These topics relate to PPI in various stages of the medicines development lifecycle and form part of the toolkit – they include the role of PPI in clinical trials, regulatory review and approval, research agenda setting, and antimicrobial stewardship. Discussions also covered topics beyond medicines development, including the basics of PPI like where to look when one wants to involve patients in research, and how to evaluate PPI.

The workshop received positive feedback from participants, who rated the sessions as good to excellent. They expressed that they most enjoyed the “interaction and lively discussions”, “input from different perspectives” and “practical tools and tips for improving PPI”. They felt that the workshop contributed to their learning in terms of the importance and added value of PPI, and ways to involve patients in research. It made them aware of the challenges to implementing and evaluating PPI, but also provided them with possible facilitating strategies. Although it was acknowledged that PPI is challenging for the field of microbiology and infectious sciences, participants agreed that there is certainly a place for PPI in their research.

“Engagement of representatives of the population that our research is meant to benefit (PPI), seems so logical that I wonder why it hasn’t been part of Good Clinical Practice, and why I hadn’t really heard about PPI before doing this course” – Katina Kardamanidis, Project Officer

Several participants who are part of COMBACTE have expressed interest in helping to review sections of the PPI toolkit during the final stages of its development. This will not only help improve the toolkit and ensure accessibility to its target audience, but will further strengthen partnerships within COMBACTE projects.

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