Nov 2021: Call for patient public reviewers for BMJ Health and Care Informatics

[Haveyoutriedyoga]

(journal name added to title)

BMJ will invite participants to peer review submitted papers and sometimes to write an article on a topic selected by the oversight panel and agreed by the Editor.

https://informatics.bmj.com/pages/patient-and-public-involvement/

I have no connection/ involvement and am highly skeptical.

 

[Ravn]

Peer review by patients - nice idea and expressed using all the right words (in the linked paper and blog).

In theory I like it (except for the bit where reviewers, be they patients or professionals, don't get paid for their work while the journal creams all the $$$).

In practice I'm struggling to see the BMJ inviting any of us here to review papers on ME, least of all BPS papers. But hey, here's a challenge BMJ: prove me wrong!

 

[Hutan]

In theory I like it (except for the bit where reviewers, be they patients or professionals, don't get paid for their work while the journal creams all the $$$).

There appears to be some 'reimbursement for time':

In line with the guidelines of the UK National Institute for Health Research, we will offer to reimburse the time of patient and carer participants—we want to reach beyond the articulate middle class, to those who are at the sharp end of “social determinants of health.”

The blog that is linked on the information page actually comes across really well. Note that this is BMJ Health and Care Informatics. So, a fairly specific journal.

 

[Sean]

Note that this is BMJ Health and Care Informatics. So, a fairly specific journal.

Yes, we need to be careful not to write off a project just because of some associations. Not everybody within any institution is the enemy. We need to find those who could help turn things around, and work with them.

 

[Arnie Pye]

The idea of getting patients and the public involved in reviewing medical research isn't new.

This link was published in 2018 :

https://blogs.biomedcentral.com/bmcblog/2018/09/10/patient-peer-review-in-academic-journals/

and the BMJ adopted their Patient and Public Partnership in 2014 :

https://www.bmj.com/campaign/patient-partnership

I don't know in what ways things are different between 2014, 2018, and 2021.