Follow-up
You’ll need to think about follow up immediately after the PPI activity, as well as longer term follow up
Follow up immediately after the PPI activity
Contact people within two weeks of the PPI activity:
Thank them for their time
Send any slides or handouts that you used during the activity
Say something personal about what you gained from the activity
Tell people what you will do as a result of their input
Tell them when you will be in touch again – this might not be for six months or a year, but be clear about roughly when this will happen
Remind them about any further opportunities for involvement (if there are any)
Longer term follow-up
If you decide to continue to involve people (researchers, patients and carers who took part in this project felt that an ongoing relationship really added value), keep people up-to-date on a regular basis. This does not need to be often – it could be once every six months. Updates could include:
Progress reports about the research
Information about what you have done in response to PPI
Information about other relevant projects in the research team
Useful resources
Practical advice on how researchers can improve feedback to PPI contributors:
Parkinson's UK have developed some email templates that researchers can use as a starting point for providing immediate, short and long term feedback to PPI contributors: