Patient and Public Involvement and Engagement in research

Involving people with arthritis: A researcher's guide

At Versus Arthritis, we're doing everything we can to push back against arthritis. Our ambition is to ensure that one day, no one will have to live with the pain, fatigue and isolation that arthritis causes.  

To achieve this, the research we fund must address genuine unmet patient need. The only way to ensure this is to actively involve people with arthritis in our research activities, from setting research priorities through to evaluating the outcome of research projects. 

We believe that our patient involvement activities, and those of our funded researchers, should be purpose-driven and conducted in a meaningful way, to ensure that they are valuable to researchers, the charity and above all, to people with arthritis. 

Alongside researchers and people with arthritis, we have co-developed Involving people with arthritis: A researchers guide which aims to support you to integrate PPI into your work so that it enhances your research. 

The booklet contains information on: 

• Why you should involve people with arthritis in your research 
• Guidance for basic science researchers 
• Guidance for clinical researchers 
• Case studies 
• A checklist for planning your involvement 
• How to get started 
• Lay communication 
• Useful resources 

You can also download our checklist for planning your involvement as a standalone document, to allow you to reuse it whenever you begin a new project. 

For more information, please contact the research involvement team at researchinvolvement@versusarthritis.org.