The Faculty’s second online Patient and Public Involvement and Engagement (PPIE) Celebration event took place on 29 June.

Hosted by Co-Chairs of the Faculty’s PPIE Forum, Professor Stephanie Snow, Academic Lead for Community Engagement and Involvement and Kay Gallacher, Public Contributor, the event welcomed 50 attendees including staff, students and Public Contributors.

This year’s theme ‘Celebrating five years of PPIE’ looked back on the last five years of PPIE since the creation of the Faculty of Biology, Medicine and Health. To celebrate this milestone, attendees heard from five guest speakers who showcased the range of activities that have taken place over the last few years:

• Sheena Cruickshank, Professor of Public Engagement & Biomedical Science, Division of Infection, Immunity & Respiratory Medicine.
• Sally Giles, Claire Planner, Becci Morris – a joint presentation from three researchers within Division of Population Health, Health Services Research & Primary care
• Ellena Badrick, Research Associate, Division of Molecular & Clinical Cancer Studies
• Kate Smith, Manager for the Manchester Academy for Healthcare Scientist Education (MAHSE)
• Angela Ruddock, Public Contributor and chair of PRIMER PPIE group
• Will Dixon, Professor of Digital Epidemiology, Division of Musculoskeletal & Dermatological Sciences

Attendees also explored how PPIE in a health and clinical research setting can embrace the new digital world in a meaningful way through an interactive group activity led by Jenny Ward, Research Co-ordinator in the Faculty’s Digital Experimental Cancer Medicine Team. The discussion points from each group will be collated and translated into a resource to aid the wider PPIE community.

As well as looking back over the last five years, the Social Responsibility and Public Engagement team also looked ahead to the future at what comes next for PPIE. If you have any thoughts on this including resources, event topics, training etc. please contact srbmh@manchester.ac.uk

The event also featured the Faculty’s ‘Outstanding Contribution to PPIE’ awards which recognise the inspirational and outstanding commitment to PPIE that has made a positive difference to our community. See below the winners, highly commended and Covid-19 award recipients.

A recording of the event is available to watch now online.

PPIE Awards

Newcomer category

Winner – Live with Scientists

A non-profit initiative launched last year by a group of scientists from the University. They are devoted to providing equal access to science for everyone.

One off project or event category

Covid-19 – Dr Karen Davies and the Living with Dementia during Covid-19 project team

The team set out to understand the experiences of people living with dementia and their carers.

Winner – Emma Crosbie and #LetsTalkLynch team.

The team engaged with patients, support groups, and gynaecological cancer charities to shape their research. This triggered a NICE assessment of their evidence, which led to guidance that all womb cancer patients should be offered testing for Lynch syndrome. Find out more here

Student category

Covid-19 – Doubleday Student Society #TheSmileBehindTheMask campaign

#TheSmileBehindTheMask campaign is an innovative social media campaign aimed to help healthcare professionals and students on clinical placement to communicate more effectively while wearing facemasks.

Highly commended – Jessica Haigh

Jessica continued to support the SPATIAL study through a range of activities which was proved invaluable during the pandemic.

Winner – Laura Hemming

Laura shows a continued passion and commitment to involve individuals with lived experience throughout all stages of research. Her work resulted in a co-produced set of guidelines which has pioneered the involvement of individuals with lived experience of incarceration in research.

Staff category

Covid-19 – Jennifer Silverthorne and Victoria Tavares

Jennifer and Victoria recruited members of the Division of Pharmacy and Optometry’s Patient and Public Advisory Board to take part in a series of online consultations. These sessions replicated hospital placements and assessment for our clinically vulnerable students. If this initiative hadn’t been developed then our pharmacy students would have been unable to graduate.

Highly commended – Becci Morris

Becci developed The Patient Safety Guide, a tool that supports and informs patients, enabling them to get the best possible outcomes from their contact with primary care services. Becci worked with members of the public and stakeholders to develop the initial ideas which were then consolidated and refined with a PPI group.  She always strive to ensure that members of the group feel valued and involved.

Winner – Kelly Howells, Mat Amp and the team

The team worked in partnership with Groundswell charity to design, conduct and analyse interviews with people experiencing homelessness. This work has been an exemplary partnership of shared learning and expertise to successfully conduct this research which wouldn’t be possible otherwise.

Group category

Covid-19 – Greater Manchester Older People’s Network

The Greater Manchester Older People’s Network collaboratively created a booklet targeted at older people who were shielding and isolating. The booklet was a huge success and has even been celebrated by the World Health Organisation as best practice for age-friendly cities during covid-19.

Highly commended – EMPOWER partnership group

The EMPOWER partnership group was formed to establish the acceptability of digital methods in patient reported outcome measures. They championed the need for virtual involvement and informed a person-based empowerment feedback intervention for older people with multimorbidities.

Winner – Doubleday Centre for Patient Experience

The Doubleday Centre is a group who were established in 2015 as the first centre of its kind in England. They put patient experience at the heart of medical education by involving Public Contributors in all aspects of the delivery, teaching, and governance. The centre has trained 3000 graduates and is recognised for leading best practice nationally as well as internationally.

Public Contributor category

Covid-19 – Chava Erlanger

Chava is an artist, who, in collaboration with Manchester’s Maternal and Fetal Health Research Centre aimed to help break the taboo surrounding stillbirth in the Jewish community. They went above and beyond their role for the project which included; facilitating artistic workshops, interviewing researchers, and recruiting a third of all participants.

Joint winner – Peter and Julie Mohr

Peter and Julie committed a significant amount of time, energy and expertise over the past decade volunteering for the Faculty’s Museum of Medicine and Health. Their voluntary work has been integral to the Museum’s development and they have continually worked to preserve the collection and make it more accessible to all. 

Joint winner – Ailsa Donnelly

Ailsa has been a Public Contributor for several years and has provided invaluable support to staff, students and Public Contributors. Her main aim has been to improve healthcare research by persuading researchers that PPIE is not just good for their research but crucial for credibility and understanding. She have also been involved in several PPIE groups, supported the training of staff and students and has contributed on several PPIE papers. Ailsa continues to be a great support to staff, students and Public Contributors alike.

For more information about other PPIE events, training and funding opportunities sign up to the fortnightly SR digest, visit the website and PPIE blog, follow @FBMH_SR or email srbmh@manchester.ac.uk.