The Learning Together Evaluation framework for Patient and Public Engagement (PPE) in research is a national adaptable tool, which can be used to plan and to evaluate patient engagement before, during and at the end of a project.
The Learning Together Framework can be used in multiple ways with the purpose of mutual learning and understanding by all partners. It is rooted in seven (7) guiding principles of patient engagement defined by the patient-oriented research community: Relationship building, Co-building, Equity, diversity and inclusion, Support and barrier removal, Transparency, Sustainability, and Transformation.
This framework can be used as a guide to plan engagement strategies. Users can identify and implement best practices before the project has started, improve while the project is ongoing, and report back on the transformation their work has contributed to bring about. Users can also use the framework to build their own logic model for assessing patient engagement when conducting research.
This tool offers a list of indicators that were highlighted by the community as essential to good engagement (“must have”) and items that pushes the engagement and its evaluation further (“nice to have”). Users can choose to assess either one or all of the components of the framework: the guidelines and resources that structure the foundation of their partnership (the first six dimensions represented on the pathway), the development and refinement of their partnership (the dimensions represented by the reel) and the different forms of transformation (the mountain) partnership can contribute to generate.
Ultimately, the Learning Together framework can serve to catalyze best practices and common strategies for PPE implementation and evaluation across the Canadian patient-oriented research community, while encouraging continuous reflection in- and on- action to sustain a learning health system that truly takes into account the needs, priorities and perspectives of patients, communities and citizens.