To make medical
research more patient-centric, top journals are now inviting reviews from
people who have suffered the disease in question
Moving away from
traditional ways of publishing medical research studies, renowned journals
around the world are now adding a human touch to research by introducing pa
tients as reviewers. Studies, thus, will not just be peer reviewed by
scientistsdoctors before publication, but also be assessed by a group of select
patients who have gone through the turmoil of the disease under study .
Top
journals such as British Medical Journal, Research Engagement and Involvement,
and Journal of Participatory Medicine have introduced patient reviewers,
thereby allowing patients to be contributors in health and medical research.
“Imagine development of a chemotherapy, which is targeting the organs but is
causing great discomfort to patients. As researchers we need to understand what
the patients require,“ says paediatrician Dr Meenu Singh at PGI Chandigarh, a
regular reviewer for the well-known Cochrane database of systematic reviews
based in the UK.
This
trend gives patients a voice and allows researchers to do studies relevant to
their needs. “Patient involvement in all aspects of healthcare is to be
welcomed. Of course, there would be sensible as well as terrible comments,
which reflect a range of opin ions. In the end, they will go through a process
of informed decision making. Reviews will also be assessed by editorial
committees that will differentiate the wheat from the chaf,“ says Dr
Vivekananda Jha, professor at department of nephrology , PGI, and deputy editor
of the Indian Journal of Nephrology .
The
publishers who have initiated patient reviews say they are provided a slightly
different set of questions than those posed to traditional peer reviewers. Amy
Price, a PhD researcher in evidencebased healthcare at Oxford, says, “An
informed public working together with medical providers will forge a dynamic
partnership that will potentially save many lives.“
Source | Times of
India | 19 August 2015
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