NUI Galway has launched the latest stage of the multi-million plan to gets involved in healthcare research with the PPI Catalysts initiative.
PPI Catalysts will see prominent researchers across different departments with a hand in healthcare work to promote practices of public and patient involvement in the projects they undertake.
NUIG was one of five universities awarded funding under the Health Research Board and Irish Research Council’s €1.75million ‘PPI Ignite’ initiative to push researchers to get patients involved from the very start of the health research process.
Professor Sean Dinneen is heading the PPI Ignite programme at NUIG.
He said that these catalysts are working to set a standard within their departments and act as a force for change in the culture of research.
“They are setting a standard on meaningful involvement and their enthusiasm for PPI and their expertise will inspire others to follow suit”.
The four researchers, or ‘catalysts’ taking part so far are Dr Ruth McMenamin, College of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences; Dr Martin O’Halloran, College of Science and Engineering; Dr Oonagh Meade, College of Arts, Social Sciences and Celtic Studies; and Dr Michelle Queally from the College of Business, Public Policy and Law.
Dr McMenamin works in the area of speech and language with people who live with aphasia, a language disorder experienced by up to one-third of the stroke population.
She said that promoting this kind of inclusive attitude opens researchers minds up to new ways of looking at their work.
“By doing involvement work researchers move away from thinking about ‘my research’ towards thinking about ‘our research’ and this leads to transformative experiences for all involved in the research process”.
Dr O’Halloran, Head of the Translational Medical Device Laboratory said this new approach is a radical shift in the traditional decision making process in healthcare that has the potential to deliver more targeted development of medical devices.
“The key opinion leader in device development has traditionally been the doctor. The patient voice is now becoming more important.”
“PPI gives us an insight into the patient perspective on what devices are needed and what problems devices should focus on solving.”
Prof Dineen added that patients are experts on the conditions that they live with, so hearing about their personal experiences provides valuable insight for healthcare researchers.
He added that the increasing number of partnerships between members of the public and institutional research shows the key role patients have to play in developing the future of healthcare.
