Consumer engagement

Patients, carers and service users are all recipients of health care and have a right to be actively involved in research that informs policy and progress. In research and education, these people are referred to as ‘consumers’.

We aim to incorporate consumer engagement into standard research practice as it contributes to health research prioritisation and positively impacts barriers to health services by supporting accessibility.

The National Health and Medical Research Council provides a Statement on Consumer and Community Involvement in Health and Medical Research (the Statement) [opens external site] to support consumer and community involvement across all types and levels of health and medical research. The statement provides the framework through which consumer engagement can be conducted, which informs the UTS engagement and research strategy.

Why is consumer engagement important?

Including consumers in research processes and systems enhances the quality, relevance, and impact of research findings. Positive effects have been reported for all stages of research, including:

improvements in research objectives and research questions;
improved research participant friendly information, questionnaires and interview schedules;
more appropriate research participant recruitment strategies;
improvements in the interpretation of research data, and;
enhanced implementation and dissemination of research results.

Consumer engagement assists in identifying connections and gaps between perspectives and expectations of patients and health services professionals. It facilitates stronger relationships between researchers, consumers and community members at all levels of health and medical research in Australia. Consumer engagement connects and supports researchers in health and non-health areas, which encourages transdisciplinary conduct and assists with securing research funding.

Our consumer engagement

A consumer engagement advisory group has been established by Improving Palliative, Aged and Chronic Care through Clinical Research and Translation (IMPACCT), which actively involves health consumers in the design, implementation, evaluation and dissemination of IMPACCT’s research projects. IMPACCT consumers are made up of people from culturally and linguistically diverse communities across Australia who have had first-hand experience of either living with a chronic illness, providing hands on care to people living with progressive life limiting illnesses and/or with palliative care needs.

Find out more about our IMPACCT Consumer Advisory Group.