A recent survey of public involvement in research applications to the National Research Ethics Service (NRES) [1] revealed the scope (range of activities) and extent (proportion of studies) to which patients and the public are being involved in medical research projects.

The survey showed that only "19% of researchers reported involving, or intending to involve, the public in their research" in at least one of the following ways:

.Design of research projects
.Undertaking of research projects
.Management of research projects
.Analysis of research data
.Dissemination of research results

The NEYNL CRP remains committed to working in partnership with as many local medical research scientists and doctors as possible, so as to promote public and patient involvement (PPI) in all of these areas .

[1] Public involvement in research applications to the National Research Ethics Service (NRES), INVOLVE, UK, October 2011.

"Greater public involvement [in medical and healthcare research] can lead to better research and clearer health outcomes, and can save money. A recent study by INVOLVE, Exploring Impact: Public involvement in NHS, public health and social care research [1], reported that public involvement in research helps increase recruitment to all types of research.  In clinical research it helped to ensure acceptability of trials, and participants felt them to be ethical, well designed and to have relevant outcome measures.  It was also found to be of value in qualitative research where participants are asked to share their views and experiences."

National Institute for Health Research Annual Report 2009/10, NIHR, UK, July 2010.

[1] Exploring Impact: Public involvement in NHS, public health and social care research, INVOLVE, UK, October 2009.

That is: 1. at all stages of the research cycle and to the deepest level, as illustrated by the first slide below taken from the NIHR Research for Patient Benefit application form and kindly loaned to us by Dr. Natasha Mitchell from the Research Design Service for Yorkshire and the Humber (click on the thumb-nail to see a larger version of the slide and a brief explanation) ...

And 2. in a fully collaborative and bottom-up way, as illustrated by the second slide below of a public-patient involvement model kindly loaned to us by Lisa Robinson, a Ph.D. student at Northumbria University (click on the thumb-nail to see a larger version of the slide and a brief explanation).

.Who We Are

We are a group of healthcare "consumers" (mostly lay-people) who have had personal experience of various diseases (including cancer); either as a patient or a carer.

To find out more about our backgrounds and the diseases that we have experience of please read our page dedicated to who we are.

We are very interested to hear from anyone who might like to join us, especially if they have experience of a disease other than cancer (so that we can broaden our range of experiences).

Please get in touch with us for an informal chat.

A picture of the C.R.P. members hard at work, April 2008 (click on the photo for a larger version of the picture).

.What We Do

The Comprehensive Research Panel exists to increase consumer involvement in NHS medical research (initially this was limited to cancer research, but our remit has since expanded to cover all NHS medical research).

The members of the panel take an active part in the quality of local medical research, most often by giving advice to doctors and scientists about the readability of  their patient documentation (i.e. is this written in plain English?) and providing consumer representation on local steering committees and trial management groups.  We also arrange occasional training events, and mini seminars/conferences.

For more details about our work, please read the pages dedicated to what we do, our manifesto our news, our events and our publications.

You can also read the testimonials that people have said about the help that we have given them.

.Our Geographical Area

Whilst our meetings are usually based in Hull, East Yorkshire, our sphere of influence extends to include all of East Yorkshire (including Hull, Goole, Driffield, Beverley and Bridlington), North Yorkshire (including York, Scarborough, Whitby and Harrogate) and Northern Lincolnshire (including Grimsby and Scunthorpe); as highlighted in yellow on the following map:

We also work in partnership with like-minded groups in West Yorkshire and South Yorkshire.

.How You Can Find Out More

Please feel free to explore the rest of our pages to find out more about or work and our successes.

If you can't find what you are looking for, then please get in touch with us; we would love to hear from you!

.Our Partner (Umbrella) Organisations

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