Patient Involvement in Health Care: Conceptualisation, Measurement, Uptake and Future Improvement

Abstract

The topic of patient involvement (PI) is gaining increasing importance in health services research, health policy and service delivery (Mockford et al. 2012). In the US, the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) was established three years ago specifically to bolster research focusing more on patients’ needs. PCORI funded research requires patients and other stakeholders to be involved in all phases of the study (Selby and Lipstein 2014). In the UK, the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) funded research is not as prescriptive but does require applicants to describe in detail how patients are involved in different stages of research and implementation, a recommendation shared by the American Hospital Association (American Hospital Association 2005). At EU level, the Council of the European Union emphasizes the need for health care to become more patient centred and strengthen the involvement, in particular, of chronically ill patients (Council of the European Commission 2010). The Collaborations for Leadership in Applied Health Research, a newly established partnership of academic institutions and health services providers in the UK that aim at identifying new ways of service provision and bringing new evidence faster into practice, too, emphasize the importance of PI (Renedo et al. 2014).