Strategies for engaging patients in co-design of an intervention

We provide practical guidance about using co-design methods to collaborate with patients to create patient-facing interventions, which others can use when undertaking similar projects.

This is a narrative review synthesizing co-design principles and published literature with our experience working alongside five Veteran patients of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs in New England to co-design a portfolio of patient-facing materials to improve patient-centered care coordination. Our process took 12 weeks (April - June 2022) and was conducted entirely via video conference.

Co-design is a participatory research method. Its principles include sharing power over the research process and products, agency for all participants, embracing a plurality of forms of knowledge, and mutual and reciprocal benefit. We describe three stages of the co-design process (preparatory work; design and development; feedback and closure), strategies and techniques we used at each stage, challenges we faced, and considerations for addressing them.

Co-designing patient-facing interventions blends different forms of knowledge to produce practical, contextually specific interventions with ownership by the people who will use them.

Co-design is a feasible methodology for most health services research teams whose goal is to intensify patient engagement in research.