Making medical research understandable for everyone

Never before has there been such public interest in new medical research. But where do we find it? And does it have to be written in such a complex way that most of us struggle to understand it?

Fortunately, there is growing momentum for researchers to produce plain language summaries (PLS) of their medical research. But there are still barriers to overcome.

In this Shared Experience, we will hear how different groups are driving to overcome these barriers. We will also explore what the Healthcare Communications Association audience can do to help drive the uptake of PLS.

Target audience: Everyone who has an interest in communicating or understanding medical research

Moderator:

• Jason Gardner, PhD, ISMPP CMPP™, is Head of Scientific Services at CMC Connect (McCann Health Medical Communications). Jason is a board member of the International Society of Medical Publication Professionals (ISMPP) and is co-leading the ISMPP-endorsed PLS Perspectives project to understand the PLS needs, challenges and opportunities of different stakeholder groups. He has researched preferred PLS formats, and is a champion for their adoption across the medical communications community.

Faculty members:

• Dawn Lobban, PhD, is Global Lead, Patient Partnerships, at Envision the Patient (Envision Pharma Group). Through active participation in key working groups, including ISMPP and Patient Focused Medicines Development (PFMD), she works hard to explore effective ways to ensure effective patient engagement. Dawn is co-lead for the ISMPP-endorsed PLS Perspectives project.

• Valérie Philippon, PhD, is Head of Global Publication at Takeda. Her team is responsible for ensuring alignment of publication activities across global R&D, the various Takeda regions and local operating companies, as well as acting as a Publication Center of Excellence for all publication activities. An active member of ISMPP since 2009 and a regular panelist and invited speaker at a variety of Medical Communications conferences such as CBI, ISMPP, and TIPPA, she is the current Chair of the ISMPP Board of Trustees and active member of Open Pharma.

• Antony Chuter is chair of Pain UK. He has himself lived with chronic pain for the past 22 yrs. At first living with pain destroyed his life. At 21 he lost his job, home and partner due to the wide ranging effects of living with pain. A decade later he attended the Expert Patient Programme course and became much better at being a ‘Self manager’ of his long term conditions. He joined the patient group at the Royal College of General Practitioners and later was elected chair of the group. He completed his term of office at the RCGP and discovered the British Pain Society and Pain UK. He took over the chair of the BPS Patient Liaison Committee and also became a trustee of Pain UK. Antony was elected chair of Pain UK in December 2013 and believes in the power of research and evidence to change hearts and minds about the effects and impact of living with pain. 

• Angela Sykes, MA, MPhil, is Pfizer’s Publications Standards and Best Practices Lead with more than 19 years of experience in medical publications. She is an author of the fourth iteration of the Good Publication Practice Guidelines (GPP4), and is currently co-authoring a manuscript that will be a practical guide for the development of publication plain language summaries (PLS). Last year, Angela led the development and implementation of Pfizer’s publication PLS guidance, which is now being incorporated into the company’s global Standard Operating Procedure for scientific publications.