The Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre has embraced the engagement of consumers who are part of everything we do. Consumers are involved in over 100 clinical, governance and education activities each year and through this work, they influence service delivery and contribute to improved patient experiences. However, we have no standard methods to measure and report the value and impact consumer collaborations are having.
Our project is to develop a tool to measure the impact of consumer involvement in non-research activities, using qualitative modified co-design methodology. Exploratory focus groups with consumers and health service personnel with recent experience of working in non-research activities will: review current tools that evaluate consumer impact in research studies; explore the critical elements to include in a measure of consumer involvement; and identify what a viable tool to evaluate impact in non-research activities would look like, while considering the breath of variables of a measure of “impact”.
Informed by the focus group data, workshops with consumers, staff and researchers together will co-design and refine the tool ahead of fit-for-purpose testing. The primary focus is to develop a user-friendly, accessible tool capable of answering our research question: What difference did involving consumers make in clinical, governance and education activities in our healthcare setting?
Our presentation will highlight the main findings from the series of focus groups and showcase a draft of the co-designed tool.
The key outcome of this study is a pragmatic, consumer and health services personnel-informed co-designed tool to capture impact across a broad range of non-research consumer involvement activities, demonstrating and strengthening Peter Mac’s leadership in this important field.