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My Priorities

In the first section, you learned about the perceived benefits and risks to engaging patients as partners on your research team. In essence, patient partners can be engaged at each and every step of the research process and ideally, patient partners should be engaged early. This might include ‘Identifying and Prioritizing’ research priorities –  asking them what matters to them most. Patient partners can also inform the design of your study by ensuring the methods you choose are appropriate for patients. They can also inform you of the best methods to recruit participants for your study. Patient partners can also inform your grant proposal by defining outcomes important to patients and writing/reviewing your lay summary. More information about how patient partners can be engaged at each step of the research process is found in the Learn More section of this decision aid. Think about how you can engage a patient partner early in the research process/lifecycle as you complete your priorities for engaging a patient partner in your clinical trial/research project.

What are my priorities?

Drag and drop each step in The Research Process/Lifecycle from where you envision patients being MOST engaged as patient partners to LEAST engaged in your clinical trial/research project.

Priority
Research Process Steps
  1. 1
    Identifying & Prioritizing
  2. 2
    Design
  3. 3
    Development of the Grant Proposal
  4. 4
    Preparation for Execution of the Study
  5. 5
    Data Collection
  6. 6
    Analyzing & Interpreting Data
  7. 7
    Dissemination
  8. 8
    Implementation
  9. 9
    Monitoring & Evaluation

What are the levels of engagement?

In the first section, you also learned about the levels of public/patient participation. Patient engagement success, defined by CIHR, includes shared leadership and shared decision-making. Success also means learning to work together as a team, co-building, and establishing a safe environment for open communication and a shared sense of purpose. The levels of engagement can vary across patient partners and can change over time.

As you consider engaging patients as partners, think about how you can best engage them at the top 3 levels of engagement: involve, collaborate and/or empower your research. Informing and consulting with patient partners may be appropriate in some aspects of your research, but higher levels of engagement will help ensure patients are truly part of your research team and research processes. Will patient partners be part of a patient advisory committee? Participate in research team meetings? Collect data? Disseminate results?

Levels of Engagement

  • Inform — You will keep patient partners informed.
  • Consult — You will keep patient partners informed, listen and acknowledge concerns, provide feedback on how input is used.
  • Involve — Work with patient partners so their concerns are reflected and provide them feedback on how input is used.
  • Collaborate — You will work with patient partners to include their advice into decisions as much as possible.
  • Empower — You will implement what patient partners decide.
Match the level of patient engagement with where you envision patients being MOST engaged in your clinical trial/research project. Select the Level of Patient engagement for the top 3 priorities for where you will engage patients as partners in the Research Process/Lifecycle. Note: You can use the Level of Patient Engagement more than once.
PrioritiesResearch Process StepLevel of Engagement
1Identifying & Prioritizing
2Design
3Development of the Grant Proposal