Involving patients and carers
As usual at the Conference, our bursary holders will have a high profile, especially in the sessions that they are leading.
This year there is a session on 'Patients, participants and public - different perspectives but shared views?'. Hosted by Richard Stephens, the session will include an analysis of the answers in the 2011-12 National Cancer Experience Survey, in which 60,000 cancer patients were questioned about their support for, or involvment in, research.
Welsh charity Tenovus will also be presenting findings on their innovation in inviting the public to suggest research priorities and patients to prioritise them. In the session Tenovus will be announcing the winner of the first grant made under this scheme.
For the first time, the NCRI's Consumer Liaison Group (CLG) will be holding their autumn meeting at the Conference. As part of the meeting, the group will be offering a "Dragons' Den" for researchers. Teams of consumers with experience in trial design or participation, or in portfolio management via Clinical Studies Groups, will be available for researchers to test ideas and move forward with their proposals.
"We have always wanted to use our collective expertise to help encourage, support and deliver patient and public involvement for trial proposals," explains Richard Stephens, incoming Chair of the CLG. "Having a meeting at the conference allows us to take the CLG into the research community more directly than we have done before. Potentially this gives a more effective impact at earlier stages of research design, as well as helping to build stronger long-term links between researchers and the CLG."
Consumers - who may be patients, carers or members of the public with an interest in research - are also likely to provide some challenging audience contributions to the symposium on 'Palliative and supportive care' (hosted by Irene Higginson) as well as the plenary lectures from Harpal Kumar and Sir Michael Marmot on the independent review of the NHS Breast Screening Programme.
"We consumers always enjoy the conference enormously," Richard says, "But we like to make a positive impact too, so that we give value for money for our bursaries, and above all so that we help keep the focus on research to improve outcomes for patient benefit."
Please check the Bursaries for patients and carers webpage for full details and to apply.
