On March 30 an inspiring session was organized by the Strategic Program I&I, concerning matters of patient participation in our research. Prof. Dörte Hamann presided the afternoon, and after her welcome, Dr. Marianne Boes summarized the findings of the survey on the topic of patient participation. The survey had been sent out to researchers within I&I (PhD, staff, professors) two weeks before the session and revealed that many collaborative research initiatives already exist within I&I, especially in clinical research setting. The survey further exemplified the needs for novel and further patient participation initiatives within our program.

Examples with active patient participation were emphasized by the live interviews that Dörte Hamann moderated with patient representatives and I&I researchers in hematology, rheumatology/dermatology and RSV research. A memorable example of how research can be improved by including patient perspectives was provided by Dr. Moniek de Witte and her patient research partner Mechteld van den Beld, and benefits for acquisition of research funding were discussed by Prof. Louis Bont and Nicole Derksen-Lazet (for the interviews, please click the link).

In break-out rooms, the participants of the session were encouraged to discuss ways how I&I can assist in helping patient participation in research. Inspired by positive experience shared by Nienke Nijhof, advisor patient participation at departments Dermatology & Allergology and Rheumatology & Clinical Immunology, one of the ideas put forward was to form an overarching patient council, which researchers can approach by researchers when questions arise. A project group was formed that will work on implementing patient participation in the Strategic Program I&I. If you are interested to join the patient participation project group or would like to pitch your ideas, please approach Dörte Hamann, Marianne Boes or Jovanka Bestebroer. Keep tuned!