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We’ve captured some great learnings from #COVID19! Here researcher @PPristera, and public contributors @pips101, @Jegglecreate and @HomeUrs29, tell us about their experience with the REACT studies at @helixcentre @imperialcollegeI @ImperialNHS #COVIDpublicvoice
REACT is a series of studies seeking to improve our understanding of how #COVID19 is spreading across England. One part is exploring how many people are currently infected and the second part is assessing how many people have already had the infection in the past
There’s a lot of public interest in testing, but for REACT it’s important those taking part understand all the steps: how to perform the test, how data will be used, the meaning and limitations of the test, that this is for research and that they must continue to follow guidance
This made it essential to involve members of the public to ensure the material was accessible and that these key messages came through. This began with an online consultation, the outputs of which fed into the study’s planning: https://www.imperial.ac.uk/patient-experience-research-centre/covid-19/covid19communityinvolvement/antibody-testing-react2/
The team have also now established a Public Advisory Group that consists of eight members of the public from a range of ages, backgrounds and experience levels who will continue to guide and inform their research plans and study material
The pace at which this #COVID19 research must happen has been the main challenge for the research team. Study material is produced in very tight timelines, often with many stakeholders involved, and reviewed through an accelerated ethics approval process.
But this then leaves little time to plan and coordinate the public involvement and can lead to a reliance on existing connections
The public contributors also acknowledged the short time frames but felt the major challenge was that some demographics might be left out of involvement because they don’t have time (e.g. key workers) or internet access
However, the team has been making a conscious effort to reach and engage new +diverse audiences, including promoting + facilitating a variety of public engagement activities in other areas of COVID-19 research to build greater interest and involvement in their work more generally
The research team have also tried to share feedback with all involved, and have continued to host and promote involvement activities in other COVID-19 research areas to build interest and engagement in our work more generally
Overall the research team felt a lot can be achieved in a very short amount of time if expectations are managed, for example, explaining to people that timeframes are short. However, it is important to ensure the approach is sustainable in the long term for all involved
As public contributors, @pip101, @JeggleCreate and @HomeUrs29 all felt they’d learnt more about the topic of antibody testing, gained valuable insight from fellow contributors and developed a better understanding of the work that goes into preparing a ‘finished product’
Find out more: http://imperial.ac.uk/medicine/react
