In fall 2017, the McGill Réseau Universitaire Intégré de Santé (RUIS) brought together a group of researchers, health care professionals, graduate students and patients interested in patient and public engagement within the McGill network to determine priorities, best practices and gaps in patient/public engagement. 

This group formed the basis of the McGill Patient and Public Engagement Network (PEN) which meets every few months to discuss the practice and science of patient/public engagement at McGill to advance approaches, and to create concrete tools.

RUIS McGill aim to support this community of practice, to contribute to practical advances in patient engagement, and create educational spaces for learning and transformation. The PEN’s main objective is to foster spaces for co-creation to take place between patients, doctors, clinicians, researchers, decision makers, and policy makers; functioning as a meeting place for further and future involvement of patients within McGill.

Currently the PEN is in the process of creating our strategy to include diverse understandings of health and illness.

• Diversity of patient and community partners
• Inclusion of under-represented groups
• Cultural safety
• Intersection of participatory research and patient engagement
• Health/research literacy in the general population
• Empowered and sustained engagement of patients/public throughout research
• Connect patients/public with health care professionals and research teams
• (Innovative) methods development, including arts-based
• Patient/public-led initiatives
• Knowledge translation