276 9 Chapter 9 their roles, and maintaining regular communication and evaluation, we established a mutually beneficial collaboration. Our experiences were compiled into a short video in collaboration with a leading patient involvement institute, which is now used for researcher training. Throughout this dissertation, we actively engaged individuals in various aspects, whether in the design of new concepts or the design and execution of clinical effectiveness studies. We witnessed first-hand the value it brings to research. Consequently, we identified six questions that eHealth researchers should consider to attain meaningful involvement of patients or individuals and its relevance to the research as a whole (see Box 1). While addressing all questions in detail goes beyond the scope of this dissertation, we encourage eHealth researchers to carefully consider these aspects and set-up a plan accordingly, before engaging in PPI or participatory design. Box 1. Six questions researchers should ask themselves to achieve meaningful patient and public involvement (PPI) in eHealth research 1. In which phase of the eHealth evaluation cycle is our project? 2. Who is our target population (e.g., end-user, individuals that would benefit from the studied intervention?) 3. What do we aim to achieve with PPI (i.e., identify specific needs, understand lived experiences for design purposes)? 4. How will we implement PPI (e.g., what participatory design or PPI tools to use)? 5. What are possible conditions and challenges (e.g., planning, funding)? 6. How will we evaluate the impact of PPI on the project? Lastly, we emphasize the importance of reporting best practices in research. Clear reporting guidelines with standardized approaches for reporting and reflecting on strategies to include and involve people, patients, and the public facilitates an understanding of good practices. The reporting should include how people were involved in the research, a detailed description of their roles in each phase, the participatory design of PPI tools, techniques, and methods used to elicit their needs, values, and preferences, a description of the study setting and how certain barriers were accommodated for (15). Most importantly, it should highlight what worked and what did not, serving as a guidepost for future research endeavours. ‘Users are experts of their own experience; designers are experts of the innovation process’ End-user involvement is crucial for participatory design, but the involvement of designers is equally important. This dissertation includes three participatory design projects (Chapter 2, 3, and 4), all of which were conducted in close collaboration with designers, without whom they would not have been possible. While users are experts in their own experiences, designers are experts in the innovation and design process. They possess a wide range of skills that are invaluable to healthcare innovation,
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