In this blog series we will be featuring our award winners and highly commended recipients from the Faculty’s ‘Outstanding Contribution to PPIE’ awards. The awards showcase inspirational and outstanding commitment to PPIE that has made a positive difference to our community and highlights the amazing events, activities, people and groups from across the Faculty.  

Our latest blog in this series features the Clinical Data Science Programme team, who have involved subject experts and lay representative contributors in the delivery of their programme. The team have applied co-design/creation/production through the development and delivery of the course. The team were highly commended in the group category at the 2024 PPIE Awards. 

The aim of the Clinical Data Science Programme (CDSP) is to empower healthcare professionals to apply Data Science in practice for patient benefit. Co-design was applied throughout the design and delivery of the programme starting with a series of interviews, digital surveys, and curriculum design workshops involving domain experts and key stakeholders.   

Lay representatives Joe and Mike worked with a wider Clinical Advisory Group (CAG) to co-design/produce the programme. They also attended curriculum design workshops where they directly contributed to the design and creation of the unit’s content, structure mode of delivery and assessment strategies, shaping the programme’s ethos and principles as well as reviewing each module’s intended learning outcomes and content.   

Their involvement ensured that authentic patient and public perspectives and interests are placed at the heart of every module. Academics worked with Joe and Mike to plan one of the face-to-face teaching sessions on the Digital Transformation and Human Factors, which embedded PPIE within the curriculum. The unit included user-centred design and team science/research.   

Joe and Mike participated in group work that included the creation of a persona for an app to engage young people in research championing inclusivity and diversity, enabling the students to create much more diverse personas during the activity. They also provided feedback on data visualisations created by learners for both professional and lay audiences for the Data Visualisation and Communication unit and participated in the end-of-year programme evaluation supporting the academic team to shape the next iteration of the programme.  

Their collaborative approach and dedication have, and continue to, enhance the programme’s impact, ensuring that it remains responsive to the evolving needs of patients and healthcare professionals alike. The programmes innovative approach to co-design was also published as a book chapter following a conference. The CDSP approach goes beyond tokenism, involving PPIE at all stages of design, production and delivery. 

Find out more: 

• PGCert Clinical Data Science course page 

To find out more about PPIE: watch our short film, sign up to the monthly Public Engagement Digest, visit the PPIE blog, or contact srbmh@manchester.ac.uk.      

To read more about other PPIE Award winners visit here. 

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