Engaging the Public in Health Research

This summer 2010 issue of Health Exchange is grounded in the premise that, without engaging with the social, political, and cultural fabric in which research is conducted and its results are to be implemented, health research can be misunderstood and mistrusted.

In the opening portion of this resource, Siân Aggett, Public Engagement Adviser for the International Engagement Awards at The Wellcome Trust in the United Kingdom (UK), explains that public engagement activities should join the research community with groups or communities in the outside world, where research gains its relevance through open dialogue and debate between worlds that might not ordinarily have the channels to understand or speak to one another. Aggett says: "Public engagement is not about getting public buy-in for a research programme or technology through lobbying or campaigning, and it is beyond simple health promotion. It is about really starting a two-way interaction between research and the worlds of public or policy. Good public engagement should nurture a critical awareness of both information arising from research and what research is. Ultimately, it should enable more critically aware insightful decisions for all parties."

Contents of this resource include:

• What Is Public Engagement with Health Research? (summarised above)
• Health Research in Suriname: Where Science and Indigenous Knowledge Meet
• Bilharzia: Why the Drama?
• Casting a Finer Net: Involving Fishing Communities in HIV Research
• Power in Communities: Why Does Analysis Matter for Health Research?
• Promoting Science in Schools: Research Institutes Play Their Part
• Civil Society Engagement in Health Research: From International Recognition to Local Action
• Autism: Global Challenges and Community Based Solutions
• Equity Café: Health Workers in Conversations that Matter
• Indigenous Citizens and Public Health: How Empowerment Can Make a Difference
• Unlocking Scientific Inquiry: How the Public Can Experience Science Differently