Menu
PPIE Workshop conducted by Institute for Research and Development in Health and Social Care (IRD) in collaboration with Faculty of Health Sciences, The Open University of Sri Lanka
A Virtual Workshop on “Enhancing the Quality of Health and Social Care Research with Patient and Public Involvement and Engagement (PPIE)” for academic staff members of the Faculty of Health Sciences, The Open University of Sri Lanka (OUSL) was conducted via Zoom on 2nd of July 2021 from 14:00 to 16:00 (SL time) by the Institute for Research and Development in Health and Social Care (IRD) in collaboration with the OUSL.
This workshop was aimed at fulfilling one of the objectives of the project MRC Global Health Nutrition: Enhancing Training in Sri Lanka led by the Institute for Research and Development in Health and Social Care (IRD) in collaboration with the Kings College London, Keele University UK, funded by the Medical Research Council UK (MRC). This project was planned for training and capacity building of nutrition related research in Sri Lanka. This workshop was planned in order to accomplish the objective of developing the PPIE capacity among local researchers.
Ms. Manouri Wimalasekara, PPIE Coordinator, IRD hosted the session. The workshop commenced with the welcome address by Prof. Gaya Ranawaka, Dean, Faculty of Health Sciences, The Open University of Sri Lanka. Prof. Athula Sumathipala, Director, IRD gave an introduction on IRD and its key work including PPIE. Dr. Steven Blackburn explained the impact of PPIE on the Ethical Design of Research. The usefulness of PPIE in Health and Social Care Research was discussed by Dr. Asiri Hewamalage, Consultant Community Physician, National Program Manager of the Child Development and Special Needs Unit Family Health Bereau, Ministry of Health, Sri Lanka. Dr. Duminda Guruge, Senior Lecturer, Department of Health Promotion, Faculty of Applied Sciences, Rajarata University of Sri Lanka shared his experiences on application of PPIE approach in Health Promotion programmes led by the Health Promotion Unit, Rajarata University of Sri Lanka. Mr. Lasith Dissanayake, Research Associate, IRD explained the role of PPIE in research conducted by the IRD.
Participants were invited for a virtual group photograph. Around 75 participants had joined the workshop. Finally, participants were requested to give their feedback on the workshop, and was invited for a short Q and A Session facilitated by Prof. Athula Sumathipala. During the Q and A Session, participants raised questions like, what sort of COVID-19 research are taking place and how public are working on it? How to tackle the ethics applications with PPIE research? Do you actually need ethics application to conduct PPIE? What is the difference between PPIE and Participatory action research (PAR)? Participants’ queries were discussed by Prof. Sumathipala, Dr. Blackburn and Dr. Kalpani Abhayasinghe.
Prof. Sumathipala emphasized that similar workshops will be conducted in future in collaboration with the OUSL in extending the PPIE approach to the next level in Sri Lanka. The workshop ended successfully with the closing remarks by Dr. Sunil De Silva, Department of Health Sciences, Faculty of Health Sciences, OUSL. Dr. De Silva mentioned that the OUSL is happy to work with the IRD in future PPIE related work which will be a useful initiative for the Sri Lankan academics.
