Across the world COVID-19 has had an unprecedented impact on both our private lives and our working lives. Governments and major funders of health and social care research have swung into action, pausing and postponing some research and policy activity, and changing well established processes and procedures as they prioritise responding to COVID-19 as quickly as possible. 

We must not lose sight of the importance of including patients and the public in these discussions and the development of solutions. For example, the public can help ensure that the studies and policy responses are ones that people want to be involved in, that the concerns of public are reflected in research and that all the information about the research and its outcomes are understood by the public. Working together – researchers, scientists, policy people, patients and public – will result in more relevant research, higher quality research and better outcomes.

In these videos, originally part of the Cochrane Learning Live and International PPI Network series, the presenters provided a forum to discuss, debate and share information on how and to what extent the public and patients are engaged and involved in discussions and research related to COVID-19. The intention is to use discussion from the webinar to inform an opinion article about patient and public involvement and engagement and COVID-19. 

The webinar was delivered in June 2020 and below you will find the videos from the webinar, together with accompanying slides to download [PDF].

Part 1: COVID-19 & public engagement - an NIHR perspective
Part 2: Cochrane rapid reviews of evidence and the consumer rapid response group
Part 3: COVID-19 & public engagement - a patient's perspective

You can also access the recording from the second webinar on this topic here. 

Presenter Bios

Jeremy Taylor (NIHR) – UK NIHR response to the COVID-19 pandemic and patient and public involvement. Jeremy Taylor OBE is NIHR Director for Public Voice. HIs role is to champion patient and public involvement in health and care research. He is also director of the new NIHR Centre for Engagement and Dissemination which leads and coordinates NIHR's work in engaging with patients and the public and in disseminating research evidence.

Richard Morley is Cochrane's Consumer Engagement Officer and, with colleagues, has established the COVID-19 consumer rapid response group to ensure patient and carer views are heard in rapid reviews.

Dr Gary Hickey is a Senior Public Involvement Manager at the Wessex Institute, and the Patient and Public Involvement Strategic Lead for the Research Design Service South East. His key interests are co-production and international patient and public involvement in research.

Maureen Smith is a patient advocate in the rare disease community, chair of Cochrane’s Consumer Executive, and a patient partner on numerous research projects. She is also a member of COMET’s People and Patient Participation, Involvement and Engagement (PoPPIE) Working Group.