Traditional PPI methods, both in-person and online, are effective for some but exclude others, including those in full-time employment which in the UK is 25 million people. As digital technologies are being increasingly used in clinical trials, developing alternative methods for conducting PPI for clinical trials could improve participation as well as the diversity and inclusion of the people involved. Crowdsourcing is a promising method as it involves collecting input and feedback (asynchronously) from participants online.
My PhD project involves exploring online crowdsourcing as a complementary method to traditional patient and public involvement (PPI) in clinical trials. I will apply social science theories to analyze existing applications of online crowdsourcing in medical research to understand how they impacted the research, engagement with the community, and people's behaviors towards this method. My work aims to evaluate how this method can be implemented for PPI engagement in clinical trials to promote wider participation and engagement as well as to make PPI populations themselves more equal, diverse and inclusive. I will then develop actionable recommendations for clinical trial teams to use online crowdsourcing for more inclusive PPI engagement in their projects.
Supervisors: Dr Magdalena Rzwuska Diaz, Prof Shaun Treweek, Dr Heather May Morgan and Ms Cherish Boxall
Contacts
- Malavika Acharya; m.acharya.25@abdn.ac.uk