Agenda released for first virtual regional patient and public involvement and engagement (PPIE) event

Some of the Midlands’ leading Patient and Public Involvement and Engagement (PPIE) professionals are coming together to share ideas and best practice at a forthcoming event.

 ‘Beyond COVID-19: New directions for Public Involvement in Health and Social Care Research in the Midlands’ is a free event and will take place on Monday, March 15, to Wednesday, March 17, 2021. 

 It is the first virtual, regional event which has been developed to share the latest developments in PPIE due to the COVID-19 pandemic, whilst also planning for the future. People who wish to attend are being encouraged to share the event with a friend so they can ‘attend together’ virtually.

 Organised by the Midlands Health Alliance (MHA), an organisation flying the flag for the rich and diverse pool of research expertise within the region, the first day will feature a high-profile keynote speaker who will be unveiled nearer the time.

 An introduction to PPIE will be given where the role of patients and members of the public participating in research studies will be explained and discussed.

 It will be followed by a session entitled ‘Involving children and young people in research: Adapting to the virtual world’ which will explore how the COVID-19 pandemic led to the standard methodology for involving and engaging the Young Persons Advisory Groups (YPAG) in healthcare research becoming redundant. The session will share the YPAG initiatives that the pandemic catalysed, barriers faced and lessons learnt.

 Day two will open with a session entitled ‘Impact – The art of counting bees’ which will look at the basics of measuring impact and the role of evaluation in PPIE. Later in the day a session called ‘Creative approaches – From ticking the box to outside the box’ will be held. It will explore the use of arts-based methods and how they challenge the system in which the industry works.

 Sandwiched in between those two presentations, will be a session called ‘Approaches to Co-production in Health and Social Care’.

 On the third and final day, diversity and inclusion will be addressed in a session called ‘Diversity and Inclusion: PPI with BAME communities’ and a discussion will follow about how there is still some uncertainty about the role of public co-applicants and what added value they can provide to research teams. The day will draw to a close with a panel discussion with PPIE contributors.

 MHA's Operations Manager Lois Daniels said: “We are really looking forward to hosting our first virtual PPIE event which will bring together people from across the region including professionals, participants, volunteers and more.

 “We have worked hard to develop an agenda that includes thought-provoking sessions from professionals and contributors across the region that will discuss how PPIE practices have adapted during the COVID-19 pandemic and what the future of PPIE will look like for the region.”

 To join the event, register here.