Speaking from the heart of our research

QCGC Research has played a central role in Faculty-wide health consumer and community involvement training presented this month, showcasing our work right across The University of Queensland’s health, medicine and behavioural sciences disciplines.

‘Planning for Consumer Involvement in your Research’ was strongly attended (with a waiting list!) by UQ higher degree research students, early/mid-career academics, research managers and professional communicators alike.

The aim? Embedding the lived experiences of patients and their families, often known as ‘health consumers’, into research design and delivery.  And mostly importantly, continually improving the translation of these research outputs into better treatment outcomes.

So, in addition to learning practical tools like plain language project descriptions, budgeting, planning and impact tracking, attendees heard directly from QCGC Research Fellow and molecular biologist, Dr Eva Baxter, and our longtime consumer representative, Merran Williams – whose working relationship can be considered best practice.

Dr Baxter leads the molecular research for our feMMe and ENDO-3 trials, and shared her perspective on how beneficial and rewarding it can be for early career researchers to seek help from mentors and senior colleagues to build relationships with consumers.

Merran is a former nurse, Churchill Fellow, Bloomhill Cancer Centre Ambassador, and a survivor of multiple women’s cancers.  Her insights included how much excitement and fulfillment working with researchers can bring to consumers.

Thanks must also go to QENDO’s Jessica Taylor and UQ’s Jo Maxwell who provided peak funder and institutional consumer involvement insights to this session.

Faculty training for researchers - and consumers - is ongoing.  If you are interested in being involved in QCGC’s consumer community, please reach out to Lisa Harrold by emailing l.harrold1@uq.edu.au.