The safety of patients, staff, and the public is a priority at Broadmoor Hospital, and this is also true for research activities.
West London NHS Trust has produced clear guidance on ethical considerations that researchers follow to keep patients safe during research.
This guidance is in line with advice from the HRA, which is available on their website, and also from Public Health England, who regulate how research is completed
When developing research, we consider:
- Will the participant be safe and dignified?
- How do we make sure the participant's data is kept secure and confidential?
- Have we obtained consent wherever possible?
- Is this in the best interest of the patient, staff, or public?
To help us make sure that research considers patient needs, we have a dedicated patient research group that co-produces research.
You can learn more about how we approach ethics on the Health Research Authority website
Our patients have the best insight and understanding of their own experiences. For this reason, we work with a group of dedicated patients who help co-produce our research outputs. Involving:
- Guidance in developing research methods - how would patients respond to a questionnaire we’ve selected for a project?
- Support in interpreting outputs - why have we found what we did, are there other explanations?
- Developing their own streams of research and questions.
The Patient Research Group meets monthly to inform research and service development projects in the hospital. We invite internal and external researchers to work with this group to ensure patient insights and experiences are considered throughout the research process.
In 2019 the new Broadmoor hospital build included a new technology (Oxehealth) which monitors patient safety. Upon reviewing the impact and benefits of the technology.
When developing a service evaluation, which explores the impact and benefits of Oxehealth, we felt it was important that the patients who live with Oxehealth co-produce the questions we ask. Through working closely with two patients we better understood how to best recruit patients and questionnaires which are easier to engage with.
An anonymous patient's artwork relating to their work in co-producing an evaluation into Oxehealth technology.