The Health and Global Policy Institute (HGPI) Patient and Public Involvement (PPI) Support Project formulated policy recommendations titled, “Promoting PPI in the Policymaking Process.”

In FY2021, HGPI formed an advisory board of experts with experience serving as patient and citizen committee members and other specialists in this area for discussions on promoting PPI in health policy. Based on the findings of those efforts and with cooperation from broad stakeholders including patients and citizens, administrative officials, and academics, who participated in our interviews and other activities, we compiled the “Guidance on PPI in Health Policymaking” in March 2024. In hopes of seeing PPI implemented in the policymaking process as described in that Guidance, these six recommendations summarized specific initiatives that must be taken, especially by central ministries and agencies as well as by local governments.

We hope that our recommendations will help policy makers and stakeholders to more effectively implement patient and public involvement in the policymaking process. For more details, please find the PDF document below.

Recommendations

Recommendation 1: Reserve multiple seats for patient and citizen members so government committees can deliver a diversity of patient and citizen voices to policy.
Recommendation 2: Ensure equal opportunities for involvement in government committees by establishing terms of office for committee members and by disclosing selection criteria for patient and citizen committee members in advance.
Recommendation 3: Enable patient and citizen committee members to effectively participate on government committees by establishing a comprehensive support framework.
Recommendation 4: Draw upon a variety of PPI methods to overcome the limitations of government committees in gathering a broad range of patient and citizen voices.
Recommendation 5: Secure human resources for PPI in the policymaking process by identifying the necessary qualities for taking part in government meetings and developing a training system based on an integrated curriculum.
Recommendation 6: Develop guidelines on implementing PPI to provide a foundation for fair involvement in the policymaking process.