About R2P2
The Birmingham Rheumatology Research Patient Partnership (also known as R2P2) is a partnership between people living with Rheumatoid Arthritis, Sjögren’s Syndrome, family members, members of the public and researchers at the University of Birmingham, Sandwell and West Birmingham Hospitals NHS Trust and University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust.
About R2P2
Members of R2P2 are actively involved in setting priorities for research, informing the way that research studies are carried out and helping to develop future knowledge.
The main message of R2P2 is that we all have much to learn from each other and that having direct involvement of patients and carers in research projects is crucial to developing quality information that is of relevance and use to the wider patient and carer community as well as to the NHS.
R2P2 is managed by a Steering Panel. The steering panel consists of patient representatives, and RRG research nurses, researchers and clinicians and is co-ordinated by Drs Marie Falahee and Gwenda Simons with administrative support from Becky Birch.
Meet our R2P2 Steering Panel
Meet our R2P2 Steering Panel
R2P2 is co-ordinated by steering panel. Our current members of this panel include:
- Jackie Erpen - Patient representative
- Elspeth Insch - Patient representative
- Bob Michell - Patient representative
- Teresa Wood - Patient representative
- Marie Falahee - R2P2 coordinator, researcher
- Gwenda Simons - R2P2 coordinator, researcher
- Becky Birch - Administrative support
- Jackie Cobb - Project advisor, CRF/IRF nurse representative
- Ben Fisher - Project advisor, researcher and clinician
What is research and why should patients and the public be involved?
Research is what we do when we have a question we want to answer or a problem we want to resolve. Health research aims to generate the knowledge that will allow health organisations to deliver better health care to population they look after.
The 3D’s represent the types of activities patient research partners may do to promote and enhance Rheumatology research in Birmingham (see also the ‘Being an R2P2 patient partner’ section).
- The design of research (including establishing research priorities and informing funding applications).
- The delivery of research (including the design and development of measures, sitting on steering committees, promoting strategies to enhance informed consent and patient understanding of research).
- The dissemination of research (including the development of lay summaries, organisation of events to promote research and website design).
No matter how complicated the research, or how brilliant the researcher, patients and the public always offer unique, invaluable insights. Their advice when designing, implementing and evaluating research invariably makes studies more effective, more credible and often more cost efficient as well.
The National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) defines public involvement in research as “research being carried out ‘with’ or ‘by’ members of the public rather than ‘to’, ‘about’ or ‘for’ them. It is an active partnership between patients, carers and members of the public with researchers that influences and shapes research”.
A term you will often hear in relation to patient involvement in research is ‘Patient and Public Involvement’ (PPI). Examples of PPI within the RRG group are the patient involvement in both the DELAY and RAPID projects. The DELAY and RAPID projects are very much interlinked and the need for the RAPID project was identified through the involvement of patient research partners in the DELAY project. Research partners from both projects have been involved in the development of patient materials, lay summaries and surveys and are advising on the implementation of the various studies. Further details on these and other projects.