Consortium-Based Patient and Public Involvement and Engagement for Long COVID Research: A Pirit-Focused Impact...

At the start of the coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) pandemic in early 2020, the long-term outcomes for survivors of COVID-19 were unknown. The PHOSP-COVID cohort study was set up at scale and pace in Spring 2020 to determine the short- to long-term health consequences of COVID-19 in post-hospitalisation survivors; to understand the impact of interventions during and after the acute illness on these long-term sequelae and to build the foundation for multiple in-depth studies. A consortium infrastructure of hospital trusts, academic partners, industry, patients and charities was created. From the study inception, patients were central to the PHOSP-COVID consortium, whereby a Patient and Public involvement and Engagement (PPIE) group was convened, including charity groups, people with lived experience recruited through clinical care from NHS sites, and patient support groups through Long Covid Support. Embedding high-quality, meaningful PPIE within a large consortium brings challenges and benefits. In this article, we describe our experiences of setting up and sustaining the PHOSP-COVID Consortium PPIE group, including a PIRIT-focussed evaluation of the impact of our PPIE work and provide top tips for researchers to take forward when embedding PPIE in future consortium research.

This article outlines the set-up and sustainability of the PHOSP-COVID study PPIE group, in consultation with the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) guidance. To evaluate PPIE impact, we used PIRIT (Public Involvement in Research Impact Tool, 2023- Cardiff), and we provide our honest reflections of our PPIE work according to the PIRIT planning tool. The results highlight the benefits of a consortium approach to PPIE as well as the challenges, with quotes from PPIE contributors and academics. In addition, we have created top tips for researchers to take forward when embedding PPIE in future consortium research, linked to the NIHR standards.

This manuscript has identified gaps in PPIE considerations for the PHOSP-COVID study and specific challenges around a consortium-based approach for PPIE. These are largely due to time scale (i.e. the pace of setting up the study within a pandemic) and communication factors (diverse and large numbers of people to include/inform). Through reflection on the challenges and successes experienced in the PHOSP-COVID consortium PPIE via a PIRIT-focused impact evaluation, we have developed recommendations to support future good practice.

Patients and members of the public were involved in all aspects of this work from idea inception, design and conduct of the work, analysis and interpretation of the data. Eight patients prepared the manuscript and are included as co-authors.