Faculty of Medicine, University of Colombo and Institute for Research and Development in Health and Social care have organised a workshop on Patient and Public Involvement and Engagement in the Ethical design of Research.

The Faculty of Medicine, University of Colombo in collaboration with the Institute for Research & Development in Health and Social care (IRD) will conduct a workshop, “Patient and Public Involvement and Engagement in the Ethical design of Research” today (22). The workshop will be held at the University of Colombo, Faculty of Medicine Tower (UCFM Tower) Mini Auditorium 1 (1st Floor) from 1 pm to 4 pm. It is one of the Pre-congress workshops of the Colombo Medical Congress 2022.

The workshop is open for any professional or public interested in high-quality research for nation-building.

Having a PPIE component included in the research proposals has increasingly been recognized as a requirement by medical and health research grant awarding bodies such as National Institute for Health and Care (NIHR), United Kingdom (UK), Medical Research Council (MRC), UK, and Wellcome Trust, UK. PPIE entails research being carried out ‘with’ or ‘by’ people, rather than ‘to’, ‘about’ or ‘for’ them. It is a novel approach that requires researchers to form an active and meaningful collaboration with patients and the public in research. PPIE adds value to the research. Patients and the public can help to improve the quality of research – they can identify which research topics are most relevant to them, contribute to study design, and interpret and disseminate findings. While the inclusion of PPIE is widely adopted in medical research in the Western world, awareness of PPIE within the Sri Lankan medical research community is still considerably limited.

An eminent panel of resource persons will conduct the workshop including Dr. Ayesh Hettiarachchi Lecturer, Faculty of Medicine and Allied Sciences, Rajarata University of Sri Lanka, Prof. Upul Senarath Chair Professor of Community Medicine and Specialist in Community Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Colombo, Prof. Gominda Ponnapperuma Professor & Head, Department of Medical Education, Faculty of Medicine, University of Colombo, Prof. Duminda Guruge Department of Health Promotion, Faculty of Applied Sciences, Rajarata University of Sri Lanka, Dr. Asiri Hewamalage, Consultant Community Physician, National Program Manager, Child Care, Development & Special Needs, Family Health Bureau, Ministry of Health Sri Lanka, Dr. Enoka Wickremasinghe Consultant Community Physician, Estate & Urban Health Unit, Ministry of Health, Sri Lanka, Prof. Athula Sumathipala, Emeritus Professor of Psychiatry, Faculty of Health, Keele University, United Kingdom, Emeritus Professor of Global Mental Health, Kings College London, UK. Chairperson, National Institute of Fundamental Studies, Sri Lanka, and Dr. Steven Blackburn, Associate Professor, Institute of Applied Health Research, University of Birmingham.