The Faculty welcomed staff, students and public contributors to celebrate the amazing Patient and Public Involvement and Engagement (PPIE) taking place at this year’s celebration event.  

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 hybrid event focussed on the theme ‘Back to the Future: Reflecting on our past, shaping our tomorrow’. The theme celebrated our role in creating communities since 1824, marking the University’s bicentenary. 

We were joined by three speakers who shared their own PPIE reflections on how we can collectively advance PPIE as an integral component of our research and teaching at Manchester.  

Speakers:   

• Prof. Neil Humphrey, Sarah Fielden Chair in Psychology of Education and Associate Dean: Research (Faculty of Humanities). Neil presented #BeeWell, a youth wellbeing programme that combines academic expertise with youth-led change. Alongside the Youth Steering Group, findings from the programme’s annual co-created survey drives local initiatives and projects to improve young people’s wellbeing. Initially rolled out across secondary schools in Greater Manchester, the survey has recently extended to Hampshire, Isle of Wight, Portsmouth and South Hampton, with the aim for the initiative to be implemented nationally.  

• Harsha Parmar, Senior Lecturer in the Division of Pharmacy and Optometry and Co-Lead for the Master of Pharmacy Prescribing Curriculum and Sarah Knighton, Pharmacist and Clinical Lecturer in the Division of Pharmacy. Harsha and Sarah presented on the development of pharmacy student led health clinics, a service-learning initiative. Service learning allows students to develop their practical skills by providing beneficial services to the local community. Harsha and Sarah spoke on their experience of setting up the project from its foundation, the service user experience and student feedback and the scope for future projects. 

• Pat Walkington, public contributor. Pat has been a public contributor for many years, with expertise in the teaching, learning and training in Further and Higher Education as well as managing frontline services. Currently involved with the Applied Research Collaboration Greater Manchester, Health Innovation Manchester, and the Manchester Academy for Healthcare Scientist Education, Pat discussed her own PPIE journey and her perspective of how PPIE has changed since she began. 

This year’s group activity was led by Dame Robina Shah, Director of the Doubleday Centre for Patient Experience, and Mike Southworth, public contributor. Attendees explored the importance of patient partnerships in training the next generation of healthcare professionals and how we can integrate this as an essential component of teaching at Manchester. 

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. This year we had an astounding 21 awardees. 

PPIE Award winners and highly commended recipients.  

Newcomer category  

Highly commended – Anam Bhutta (staff) 

Anam is a true involvement advocate, having been involved in several research projects, within the Mental Health theme that aim to improve the health of the population and the quality/sustainability of the Health & Social care they receive. 

Winner – Adam Haque (staff) 

Adam collaborated with the NIHR Biomedical Research Centre and Vocal to establish a Cardiovascular PPIE Research Group. The group consists of nearly 30 patients, who between them represent the whole spectrum of cardiovascular pathologies  

Winner – Grace Gregory (student) 

Grace is a final-year PhD student who created a dedicated blogsite for members of the Neurofibromatosis type 2 (NF2) community, which is a rare debilitating disease causing the formation of countless brain tumours that lead to deafness, blindness and paralysis. The blogsite provides a safe online space and now has over 60 posts and 3500 views. 

Public Engagement category  

Highly commended – Rochdale Health Seminars  

A group of doctors, representatives and community workers who worked together to design, develop and deliver culturally sensitive health education events in Deeplish Community Centre in Rochdale. The sessions aim to combat ethnic health disparities amongst the South Asian population.  

Highly commended – Cloudy with a Chance of Pain  

This project investigated how long-term pain conditions are affected by the weather. Using innovative and creative methods, the team recruited 13,000 members of the public people to record their pain levels on a smartphone app over 15 months.  

Winner – Museum of Medicine and Health 

The museum aims to broaden access to the collection of historical medical artefacts, spanning 200 years of healthcare, research and medical education. The heritage officer, volunteers and academic lead demonstrate an exceptional dedication to public engagement by fostering research opportunities, enriching the student experience, and encouraging the use and understanding of the collections by diverse audiences.  

Inclusivity category  

Highly commended – Gene app team (staff) 

The team co-designed the ‘Gene’ app to address the lack of access to culturally sensitive genetic information, leading to a significant unmet need within South Asian Pakistani communities in the UK.  The app provides videos and animations in both English and Urdu in an engaging and accessible way.   

Stevie Shoop-Worrall, staff winner of the Inclusivity award.

Winner – Stevie Shoop-Worrall (staff)

Stevie’s research looks to bridge the gap between child and adult care of psoriatic arthritis, which currently have different treatments. She has involved children, young people and adults with psoriatic arthritis, as well as families and carers in developing and the ongoing managing of this project.  

Highly commended – RAPID-RT team (mix) 

The RAPID- RT are pioneering innovative and inclusive methods to assess the impact of changes in cancer treatments on patient outcomes using routinely collected data.  Over 500 patients with lung cancer have been included within 12 months, showcasing the impact of engagement work 

Winner – Parkinson’s from Inside Out (Ellen Poliakoff and Matthew Sullivan) (mix) 

Ellen, a member of staff and Matthew, a public contributor, have led various projects together with a PPI leading thread for more than 10 years. Their collaboration and research serve as a great source of inspiration, having resulted in a scientific publication that inspired many to follow the true PPI in their research.  

Individual category 

Winner – Sheena Cruickshank and Ardwick residents (staff) 

Sheena leads on a participatory research project in partnership with Ardwick residents to investigate concerns about air quality. Through consultation workshops and participatory mapping exercises, this work has led to the development of a green route launched in April to a positive reception.   

Winner – Phil Macdonald (staff) 

Phil has been involving public contributors for 10 years. He recognises that they are essential in teaching healthcare scientists and offers public members the freedom, support and encouragement to ensure their involvement is effective, ensuring that they feel valued.    

Highly commended – Marie McDevitt (public contributor) 

Marie provides unique insight and service user expertise to research activities and has a strong personal commitment to medical research and public service values. She is a great advocate for mental health research and a member of several PPIE groups.  

Winner – Edith Brown (public contributor) 

Edith is a long-term patient partner who has worked with the Raynaud’s and Scleroderma Research group on several studies. She is recognised nationally and internationally for their advocacy work and expertise.  

Group category  

Highly commended – ClinPsyD Community Liaison Group   

A group of public contributors that provide a consistent service user and carer voice, integral to the structure and delivery of the Clinical Psychology Doctorate course. They ensure those with lived experience of mental health services, and those that care for them, provide meaningful input into the training of clinical psychologists.  

Clinical Data Science Programme Team, highly commended in the group category.

Highly commended – Clinical Data Science Programme team  

The team empowers healthcare professionals to apply Data Science in practice for patient benefit, applying co-design/creation/production throughout the design and delivery of the programme.  

Winner – STAND Indonesia  

STAND Indonesia aims to increase access to psychological interventions for anxiety and depression in Indonesia. They have worked with people with lived experience to co-adapt and co-deliver a low-intensity psychological intervention training programme for primary care workforces in Indonesia.  

Special bicentenary category   

Winner – Peter and Julie Mohr (public contributors) 

Peter and Julie have given their time and commitment to the Faculty’s Museum of Medicine and Health since 2002. They are retiring from their voluntary work at the end of bicentenary year, having countless contributions such as organizing and conserving the vast collection of items and publishing research papers to ensure that the museum serves as a rich educational resource for everyone.  

Winner – Sheena Cruickshank (staff) 

Sheena is the University’s first and only Academic Lead for Public Engagement with Research at the University, overseeing the development, implementation and monitoring of an institutional framework for public engagement in parallel with other key university-wide strategies.  

Winner – Voices of Our NHS (group) 

Voices of Our NHS is a new national lived experiences collection, documenting the 75+ year history of the NHS through the voices of patients, staff and communities. It is now a permanent public resource at the British Library to inform policy and practice now and in the future. 

Winner – Robina Shah and The Doubleday Centre for Patient Experience (group) 

The Doubleday Centre was founded with a visionary aim to integrate patient partnerships directly into medical education. The Centre’s unique patient and public involvement model has transformed how future healthcare professionals are trained.  

Read more about previous PPIE award winners on our blog site and 2023 PPIE Award winners booklet.  

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