What is patient involvement and what are its benefits?
Patient involvement is the input of patients in healthcare, not just as research participants and recipients of services, but as partners. Examples of this include the setting of research agendas, project proposal development and the production of clinical guidelines. Patient involvement also includes carers and the public where appropriate.
Eurobarometer’s Qualitative Study on Patient Involvement [1], the report of which was published in May 2012, was commissioned by the health directorate of the European Commission (DG SANCO) to investigate the views of patients and healthcare professionals on patient involvement in healthcare. The study was conducted across 15 countries and, in each country, five healthcare professionals and 10 patients were interviewed.
The general findings from the study were that the term “patient involvement” was not well understood by either patients or professionals in most countries. However, patients with chronic conditions were more likely to understand the concept, as well as those who were younger and better educated. Both patients and professionals could see advantages to patient involvement in healthcare, essentially making patients more engaged and, therefore, responsible for their health and that of others. However, neither group could specifically …
