£50,000 awarded to help young people have their say

Involvement from patients in priority setting around rheumatology research is vital. However, to date little work has been done to understand younger patients’ views.

Recognising this, the BANNAR (Barbara Ansell National Network for Adolescent Rheumatology) have awarded the NIHR Manchester Musculoskeletal BRU £50 000 to take a lead role in the YOURR (Young People’s Opinions Underpinning Rheumatology Research) project.The BRU’s involvement will be led by Professor Wendy Thomson, Public and Patient Engagement /Involvement (PPI/E) Lead and Nowgen, who support PPI/E work within the BRU.

The YOURR project is a collaboration between Dr Janet McDonagh at the Birmingham Children’s Hospital NHS Foundation Trust and the University of Birmingham, Nowgen and the NIHR Manchester Musculoskeletal BRU which will work in partnership with the other members of BANNAR to enable young people between 11 – 24 years old, to have their say about rheumatology research.

Professor Wendy Thomson, Theme Lead for Inflammatory Arthritis in Children, said: “We are excited to be leading this work and supporting young people to work in partnership with researchers. The BRU is committed to involving patients of all ages in developing future research priorities. We hope the YOURR project will give young people from across the UK the chance to voice their opinion about research.”

The project will facilitate 16 focus groups across the UK to explore young people’s views on research priorities in rheumatology and how they would like to get involved in research. The work will generate evidence to develop a young person’s led involvement strategy. It will ensure that young people work actively and meaningfully with researchers in the future and have an impact on the research pursued by units such as the BRU and other research networks.