We were shaken and stirred by our keynote speaker, Sir Iain Chalmers, invigorated by the variety and richness of the posters and sessions, drew energy from new connections made and old alliances refreshed, and emerged with a renewed sense of mission and purpose.
That is how I would sum up INVOLVE 2012.
This was our largest and most ambitious conference yet, with over 490 delegates over two days, more than 70 posters, and workshops around every corner. It also marked our first venture into social media with a blog and very active twitter feed.
Yet old favourites such as the Soapbox Session felt as fresh as ever. So I hope and feel that we retained our sense of togetherness whilst changing with the times. This was a place where one could find support as well as new ideas and learning. Just as it was when the INVOLVE conference first came together at Kensington Town Hall in the late nineties.
The interest in this year’s conference is a sign that public involvement is permeating much wider across our health research system. Our voice is growing in influence with it. As Sir Iain urged us, we must use it with greater impact whether about the openness of clinical trials data, the rights and expectations of research participants, or the need for public involvement in emerging structures such as the Academic Health Science Networks (AHSNs).
There was much talk over the two days of our evolution from a community to being a wider movement. That we must be both resolute about our purpose, whilst pragmatic and opportunistic about how we get there. Particularly if we are to overcome the many challenges we identified: payment to service users; sharing evidence and good practice; learning and development agenda; the health and social care reforms; assessing impact.
An urgent priority for us all to give this movement momentum is to get better at linking up and connecting with one another. So, if you have yet to contact the new person you met last week I challenge you to do so by next week and tell us what evolves from it. Also please respond with networking ideas when we send our follow-up conference survey in a short while.
If you are doubtful of the power of the patient voice despite all you saw and heard last week let me leave you with one further thought.
It just so happens that yesterday I sat on a conference panel with Sir Donald Irvine, founder of the Picker Institute and long-term patient advocate. He reminded me afterwards that some of the key inquiries that have lead to recent improvements in patient empowerment and begun to change the deeply embedded medical model and culture around care and research – Bristol, Mid-Staffs etc – would not have happened were it not for public pressure especially at local level.
My heartfelt thanks to the organisers, presenters and all who came for making INVOLVE 2012 such a success.