Patient and stakeholder engagement for researchers
Why engage patients and other stakeholders?
Engaging people affected by cancer and other stakeholders in research and funding decisions is a core approach of the Canadian Cancer Society’s (CCS) research strategy. Patient and stakeholder engagement allows people with cancer, families, caregivers, and those most likely to implement the research to add their own expertise and experiences. Research projects have the potential to be more relevant and impactful if there is meaningful and active collaboration in setting priorities, conducting research, and communicating results.
Examples of how patient and stakeholder engagement in research can have impact include:
- aligning research questions and outcomes to patient and stakeholder priorities (see 1)
- developing and choosing patient-relevant communication, surveys and tools (see 2 )
- supporting recruitment and dissemination (see 1 ,3 ,4) to improve research reach and success
- creating culturally appropriate and sensitive communication and flagging issues, for example in consent forms or other communication (see 2 )
- involvement has been shown to be beneficial even in preclinical laboratory research (see 5 )
This is not an exhaustive list of all engagement supports for researchers. If you have further questions on patient and stakeholder engagement related to CCS, please email [email protected].