Careful, Kind, and Connected
01
Shared Authority
Patient partnership is not one meeting, one advisor, or one box checked. It is shared authority and sustained partnership across the entire research lifecycle.
02
Research Design
Centered means patients are considered. Partnered means patients help decide. Patient partners and researchers co-creating around a table as equals.
03
Dissemination
Patient partners help researchers think about ways to disseminate the evidence from their work well beyond manuscripts and conference proceedings.
The Second Life Commitment
After surviving an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest and heart attack in 2012, I began a “second life” devoted to creating authentic partnerships between patients, families, caregivers, researchers, and healthcare teams. I bring an educator’s curiosity, a community builder’s instinct, and lived expertise as a patient and research participant. My job on a research team is often to ask the question that has not yet been asked—and to help the team build the answer with patients, not simply for them.