Background: Patient engagement is increasingly being recognized as a critical component of health research; however, institutional models for building infrastructure and capacity for patient engagement in research are limited. There is an opportunity to create reproducible and scalable models of patient engagement in research and share best and promising practices.
Main body: In this article, we describe the development and features of the framework for the Ottawa Patient Engagement in Research Model at The Ottawa Hospital (TOH) and the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute (OHRI). Key components of the model include: a Patient and Family Engagement Program at TOH, which recruits, educates, and supports patients, families and caregivers to engage in clinical care, governance, and research; the Ottawa Methods Centre within the OHRI, which leads methodological research and provides support to investigators for patient engagement and patient-oriented research at TOH; and the Office of Patient Engagement in Research Activities, also within the OHRI, which facilitates collaborations between patients, researchers, clinicians and other stakeholders. Early success of this model can be attributed to aligned institutional priorities between TOH, OHRI and patients, the establishment of a patient engagement policy, ongoing education and support provided to patient partners and researchers, and innovative recruitment, tracking and evaluation procedures. Ongoing challenges and next steps include promoting diversity among patient partners, implementing an equitable compensation policy, engaging patients across a variety of roles and research areas, and developing resources to expand and sustain this program.
Conclusion: This model represents a unique effort of patients, clinicians, researchers, and policymakers across disciplines and institutions to produce a harmonized strategy and infrastructure for meaningful collaboration with patients and families in health research, and capacity building in patient-oriented research.
Keywords: Capacity building; Framework; Model; Patient engagement.
Involving patients and families as partners in planning, conducting, and sharing results of health research, referred to as patient engagement, is becoming more common and recognized as important part of the research process. However, guidelines and examples of how to do this well are limited. In this article, we describe the development and features of the Ottawa Patient Engagement in Research Model at The Ottawa Hospital (TOH) and the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute (OHRI). Key pieces of the model include: a Patient and Family Engagement Program, which recruits, educates, and supports patients and families to engage in clinical care, decision making, and research; the Ottawa Methods Centre, which leads studies to understand the best methods to conduct research, and provides support to researchers for patient engagement; and the Office of Patient Engagement in Research Activities, which connects patients, researchers, clinicians, and other stakeholders. Early success of this model may be a result of shared priorities between TOH, OHRI and patients, the creation of a patient engagement policy, ongoing support provided to patients, family members and researchers, and creative methods for recruitment, tracking and evaluation procedures. Ongoing challenges and next steps include promoting diversity among patient partners, setting up a fair and transparent policy for compensating patient partners, and engaging patients across a variety of roles and research areas.This model represents a unique effort of patients, clinicians, researchers, and policymakers across disciplines and institutions to produce one strategy for meaningful teamwork with patients and families in health research.
© 2022. The Author(s).