Abstract
Patient and public involvement and engagement (PPIE) has evolved to become widely established practice in social care, health and public health research in the UK. The COVID‐19 pandemic has caused rapid change in practice in PPIE, notably in moving from face‐to‐face meetings to virtual ones. This has opened a space for reflecting on established PPIE practice, but there is a risk this is conducted too narrowly, such as only weighing our preferences and the relative pros and cons with regard to in‐person versus virtual meetings. The pandemic has also demonstrated the wide inequalities in society, and hence, we argue that an inequalities lens ought to guide a deeper and wider reflection on PPIE practice. We do not seek to criticize practice pre‐ or during the pandemic, but to encourage using the inequalities lens as a means of encouraging debate and focusing energy on a more rigorous review of PPIE practice to widen involvement in social care, health and public health research.
Highlights
Patient and public involvement and engagement (PPIE)1 is widely promoted in health, public health and social care research, and most major research funders in the UK require some level of
The COVID-19 pandemic has shone a light on the issue of inequalities in health and care, and we argue there is an opportunity, even necessity, to use this experience for a fundamental review of PPIE activities across health, public health and social care research
We argue the pandemic has demonstrated the need for wholesale analysis of approaches to PPIE to develop a wider and deeper understanding of who is excluded and how. This should include groups potentially excluded from PPIE practice because of their social, economic or cultural experiences and circumstances, their health status, their roles as carers, because of geographical location and/or because of infrastructure issues such as transport and/or access to technology
Summary
Patient and public involvement and engagement (PPIE)1 is widely promoted in health, public health and social care research, and most major research funders in the UK require some level of inclusion of patients and members of the public in research processes. The COVID-19 pandemic has shone a light on the issue of inequalities in health and care, and we argue there is an opportunity, even necessity, to use this experience for a fundamental review of PPIE activities across health, public health and social care research.
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