COMBACTE-MAGNET Patient and Public Involvement (PPI) Toolkit Completed

Patient and public involvement (PPI) is a rapidly growing and important global movement. However, there is currently a lack of literature and clear practical guidance focusing on PPI in the area of antimicrobial medicines development research (Evans et al., 2017).

COMBACTE-MAGNET’s WP6i Bristol-based team has been developing a toolkit to provide systematic and evidence-based guidance on how and when to involve the public in medicines development research, in particular antimicrobials.

The team is pleased to announce that the PPI toolkit has been completed. There are two versions of the toolkit, now available in the COMBACTE Publication Library:

1. A Practical Guide, which sets out the practical steps of doing PPI in antimicrobial medicines development research; and
2. The Main Toolkit, which describes the content of the Practical Guide in more detail.

Alasdair MacGowan, WP6i lead, and Professor of Antimicrobial Therapeutics and Consultant in Infection at the North Bristol NHS Trust, wrote in his Foreword that, “PPI has both saved us time, improved the relevance of our research, and optimised our recruitment of patients into studies”.

Reflecting on her experience of developing the PPI toolkit in collaboration with public members of the PPI Panel for Antimicrobial Drugs (PPIPAD), Michele Kok, Research Associate in Public Health at the University of the West of England said, “Their experience of a serious acute infection, whether personally or as a family member, provided unique perspective and insight that is valuable to antimicrobial medicines development research”.

The PPI toolkit is primarily for principal investigators, research teams, and pharmaceutical companies. It is also potentially useful to other academics and public contributors. Training workshops to support the use of this toolkit may be arranged by contacting andy.gibson@uwe.ac.uk.

Read the publication released early this year and our COMBACTE Magazine (page 45) for more insights on PPI from the WP6i team.