Evaluation of consumer involvement in the London Primary Care Studies Programme

2004 Conference

The paper will describe the ongoing evaluation of 11 projects funded in London as part of the Primary Care Studies Programme. Although diverse in their subject matter, each project had some degree of consumer involvement, and was supported by a continuing training programme in consumer involvement. Our task is to evaluate the effect of the training on the way in which consumers were involved in each project, and to see what effect consumer involvement had on the research itself, for example in terms of its design, how it was implemented, and the outcome measures that were used.

We will address the conference theme of monitoring and evaluating by describing the ways in which we are carrying out this evaluation and the challenges that the research process has presented. The issues we will raise for discussion include: how to identify the issues of potential relevance for future projects and trainers working with them, and how we can work towards developing criteria for assessing the level and degree and success of consumer involvement in research studies and its potential impact on outcomes.