Webinar: Public and Patient Involvement: How to Do It Well – and Why It Matters
Jenny Prout on Apr 8, 2026
Patient and Public Involvement and Engagement (PPIE) is widely recognised as essential to high-quality medical research – yet too often it is treated as a compliance exercise rather than a meaningful part of research design.
For our next webinar (Tuesday 14th April from 9:30-11am) we will explore why PPIE truly matters, the impact it can have on equitable participation and positive participant experiences, and how organisations can move beyond “box‑ticking” towards approaches that genuinely shape better research.
Drawing on applied experience from our expert panel, we will make the case for investing time early in thoughtful, inclusive PPIE – working with the right participants, being open to learning from them, and being willing to adapt protocols, materials and engagement strategies in response.
What we’ll cover
- Why high quality PPIE matters and the difference it can make to equity, inclusion and participant experience
- The importance of engaging the right voices early, and how this can strengthen study design, communications and recruitment
- Common barriers to doing PPIE well, and why good intentions alone are not enough
- Practical examples, lessons learned and pitfalls to avoid
- How to deliver meaningful PPIE without breaking the bank
Session structure
Setting the scene: Ian Fannon, Owner and MD of Claremont, will start by making the case for why PPIE matters and will share Claremont’s practical guidance on embedding it effectively into trial and research programme design. Ian will introduce a new framework to support more thoughtful, impactful PPIE across communications, engagement and recruitment.
The participant perspective: Our chair and Claremont Director, Tim Parry, will then interview Dave Brown, a participant who’s been involved in several projects including the GlobalMinds study by Akrivia. They will explore why he got involved in PPIE originally, what he’s learned, the difference he hopes to make by taking part and how it might be done differently/better in future.
Panel discussion: Ian will then be joined by a panel of leaders from across the UK research landscape to explore the barriers to high quality PPIE and how they can be overcome in practice.
About our panellists and speakers:
Dr. Angela Polanco:
As the National Head of Public Partnerships at the National Institute of Health and Care Research Research Delivery Network Coordinating Centre (NIHR RDNCC), Angela leads the national function for PPIE, focused on embedding public voice into the research delivery landscape and building meaningful, lasting relationships with a variety of stakeholders including policy makers, community organisations, charities and research funders. Starting her career as a midwife, she quickly transitioned into research delivery, earning her Masters and PhD exploring methods of communication about risk for adult childhood cancer survivors during pregnancy and birth. Beyond her professional role, she’s a dedicated parent advocate and an international PPIE representative for childhood cancer research.
Kate Harvey:
Kate is Head of Participant and Public Involvement at Our Future Health, where she leads the research programme’s deliberative and dialogue work; and works closely with members of its Public Advisory Board and Involvement Network. Prior to her role at Our Future Health, Kate led on involvement and communication strategies for Genomics England’s Generation Study. Her former roles as a researcher at the Nuffield Council on Bioethics, and at the University of Edinburgh, allow Kate to bring ethical reflections – particularly with respect to trustworthiness in health research – to involvement contexts.
Naho Yamazaki:
Naho is Deputy Director of Policy and Partnerships at the Health Research Authority, where she is leading on a range of initiatives for the HRA to meet its mission to make it easy to do research that people can trust. This includes pushing for change to ensure research participants are representative of the people who will be impacted by the findings of research, embedding meaningful patient and public involvement and engagement in research, and making research transparency the norm. She joined the HRA in September 2019, having worked on developing and influencing a range of life sciences policy and strategy at the Wellcome Trust, NSW Ministry of Health in Australia and the UK Academy of Medical Sciences.
Professor Bob Phillips:
Bob is a Professor of Paediatrics and Evidence Synthesis at the Centre for Reviews and Dissemination at the University of York and Hull/York Medical School, and an Honorary Consultant in Paediatric / Teenage-Young Adult Oncology at Leeds Children’s Hospital, and Director of Candlelighters Supportive Care Research Centre.
He’s worked since the beginning of his academic career to answer questions arising from the concerns of patients and their families, and has researched, written and promoted PPIE with young people for over twenty years. He still doesn’t quite know how to do it and keeps learning what could be done better.
Suzanne Bird: Suzanne leads the development of patient‑centred recruitment and retention strategies across clinical research programmes at Pfizer. Working alongside cross‑functional teams, sites, patients, and advocacy groups, Suzanne is passionate about embedding meaningful patient and public involvement (PPI) early and throughout the research lifecycle. Her work focuses on improving study accessibility, relevance, and inclusivity, ensuring patient voices meaningfully inform study design, delivery, and outcomes. Suzanne brings a practical, evidence‑based perspective on how PPI strengthens both scientific quality and commercial success.
Dave Brown: Dave spent 40 years in a corporate career, mainly in Financial Services, before requalifying in a new career as a Life Coach, running his own coaching business since, supporting organisations within the public, private and charity sectors. Dave is also a podcaster and prolific charity volunteer.
During lockdown, Dave received an official Bipolar diagnosis (after 37 years) and got involved in Public and Patient Involvement and Engagement (PPIE). Initially this was with the National Centre for Mental Health in Cardiff, but since he has contributed to projects at Cardiff School of Medicine, the Oxford Bipolar Disorder Research Clinic, Cardiff University Brain Research Imaging Centre, an EU wide Hypertension research project (Hypermark) and now with Akrivia Health’s GlobalMinds project.
Who should attend
This webinar is for anyone working in, funding, or interested in engaging the public in science. This includes research funders, researchers and trial teams, charities and patient advocacy organisations, public sector and arm’s‑length bodies, policy, engagement and communications professionals.