How can patient partners improve clinical trials and enhance research?

The Blueprint Translational Research Group at the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute helped design a clinical trial involving patient partners – that is, people with lived experience of a health issue or their caregivers. Patient partners shared cancer stories with researchers, co-developed resources for trial participants, and co-authored scientific papers. Their team found that input from patient partners at the early stages of a clinical trial enhanced research, and may help to improve the experience of the participants involved.

We are a preclinical to clinical research team based at the OHRI working to accelerate bench to bedside translation. Our group is multidisciplinary with current interests in knowledge synthesis (i.e., systematic reviews and meta-analyses), patient engagement, and preclinical multicenter studies. The BLUEPRINT team is led by Dr. Manoj Lalu (Associate Scientist in the Clinical Epidemiology Program at the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute and Assistant Professor in the Department of Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine and The University of Ottawa) and Dr. Dean Fergusson (Senior Scientist, in Clinical Epidemiology Program at the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute, Director of the Clinical Epidemiology Program at the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute, Full Professor in Departments of Medicine, Surgery & the School of Epidemiology and Public Health and The University of Ottawa, Endowed Chair of the Clinical Epidemiology Program at the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute/University of Ottawa and Scientific Lead of Ontario SPOR SUPPORT Unit Government of Ontario and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research).