Involving pregnant women, mothers and members of the public to improve the quality of women's health research.
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Publisher
Journal
BJOG
ISSN
1470-0328
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Applied clinical research should be for the sake of society,
not solely for the sake of a scientific endeavour. Accepting
this principle also requires us to reconsider the paternalistic
approach that dominates medical research. To conduct
research in response to and in harmony with the patient
and public voice represents a strong cultural shift. For its
proper implementation, beyond paying lip service,
researchers need a new mind-set and a new work ethic.
How can they incorporate patient engagement in their
work from design and conduct of studies to interpretation
and dissemination of findings? This is not an easy task. In
this commentary, drawing on our experience of developing
Katie’s Team, a patient and public advisory group for pregnancy
and childbirth research,we outline how meaningful
collaboration can be fostered in every step of the research
lifecycle