The Cicely Saunders Institute of Palliative Care, Policy and Rehabilitation, aims to improve the quality of life of patients with a life-threatening illness and their families. The Institute is part of the Faculty of Nursing, Midwifery and Palliative Care, King’s College London. Our research brings together the expertise of researchers, practitioners and public members affected by serious illness. Working as a team of many disciplines and perspectives is key for us to undertake high-quality impactful research for clinical care and policy.
Our Patient and Public Involvement (PPI) community of people living with serious illness, and current and bereaved family carers, is vital to understand and incorporate real-life experiences of those connected to palliative care. Members are involved in the research process from the creation of priority research questions through to data collection and interpretation, and dissemination and impact. We work with our community through various opportunities including Dragons’ Den events to formulate and discuss research ideas, build our PPI infrastructure to enable diverse and meaningful involvement in research, and contributing to research projects in areas of cancer and non-cancer conditions from children to adults.