Patient and public involvement (PPI) has become an established part of the health policy agenda in several countries, including Finland. It is founded upon various rationales ranging from democratisation of decision-making to increased healthcare consumerism. Although, involving patients and the public has the potential to strengthen the acceptability of healthcare decision-making and improve service accessibility, its practical implementations can also be tokenistic and inconsequential.
In practical terms, involvement refers to the inclusion of patients and members of the public – i.e. lay participants – in all aspects of healthcare related planning, development, delivery, and research. Involvement can be implemented through various direct and indirect methods that occur on
societal/political, service, and individual/treatment levels.
Whilst this study touches upon the political and individual levels, the main focus will be on the more recent developments in Finnish health policies and services, which bring brand new expertise into healthcare development and delivery in the form of lay expertise and experiential knowledge.
The projects main results can be found in the doctoral thesis published in 2021 titled: Patient and public involvement in healthcare: Potentials and challenges of lay expertise and experiential knowledge
Funding source
Tampereen kaupungin tiederahasto, Kansan sivistysrahasto, Suomen Kulttuurirahasto