Establishing & Sustaining meaningful PPIE in Sri Lankan Research

The workshop titled “Establishing and Sustaining meaningful Patient and Public Involvement and Engagement in Research in Sri Lanka: Reflections and Learnings”, was held on the 6th of February 2019 at the National Institute of Mental Health, Sri Lanka. It was organized under the capacity building component of the South Asian Early Development and Research Capacity Building (SEARCH) Project funded by the Medical Research Council, UK.

The main goal of the workshop was to introduce researchers from leading institutions and other parties interested in the development of the research process within the nation, to the concept of establishing and sustaining meaningful Patient and Public Involvement and Engagement (PPIE) as a valuable contributing factor to the research process in Sri Lanka. In addition to this, the workshop served to further the first PPIE workshop conducted by the Institute for Research and Development on the 25th of July 2018.

The resource persons included Prof. Athula Sumathipala (Figure 1), Dr. Steven Blackburn, Ms. Adele Higginbottom, Mr. Jim Elliot, Ms. Manouri Wimalasekara and Ms. Krishani Jayasinghe; who covered topics vital in communicating the importance of establishing and sustaining meaningful PPIE, the considerations to be made when incorporating it, and a strategy for spreading the message in Sri Lanka.

There were 22 attendees in total, representing 10 institution/organizations at the workshop.

The Institute for Research and Development organized the workshop with the aim of furthering the capacity of researchers, and others parties involved in research, to improve research design by incorporating PPIE.

As Sri Lanka is a largely collectivistic and multicultural nation, which is host to many ethnicities and tolerant towards several beliefs, there are many aspects towards protecting an individual’s position within their social structure that need to be addressed. Identifying these needs, and other important considerations that are not immediately visible, when conducting research which aspires to maintain high standards (especially in ethics), will be difficult if PPIE is not incorporated into research at all stages. This includes the processes of research design, execution and publication.