Practical guide: Patient and public involvement in antimicrobial medicines development research

Patient and public involvement (PPI) in antimicrobial medicines development research is new and unfamiliar. There are few established patient support groups or voluntary organisations in the field of infection sciences given the short-term nature of many microbial infections. Due to the lack of literature and clear practical guidance focusing on PPI in this area (Evans et al., 2017), we developed this toolkit to provide systematic and evidence-based guidance on how and when to involve the public in medicines development research, in particular antimicrobials. There are two versions of the toolkit available for your use: (i) Practical Guide: This version sets out the practical steps of doing PPI, including how to find public contributors, how to plan and prepare for PPI, what the role of PPI is at different stages of the medicines development lifecycle, and how to evaluate PPI. References are not included in this document to keep it concise, but complete lists of references as well as a glossary of terms can be found in the main toolkit. (ii) Main Toolkit: This version describes the content of the Practical Guide in more detail, providing case examples and evidence to support the practical steps recommended. Toolkit content is presented as individual chapters, allowing you to select and read topics that are relevant to you. This toolkit project is part of COMBACTE-MAGNET’s clinical coordinating work package, WP6i. COMBACTE-MAGNET (www.combacte.com) is a consortium funded by the Innovative Medicines Initiative Joint Undertaking and EFPIA companies seeking new ways of treating multi-resistant bacterial infections.