News > Patient and public involvement

The Armchair Involvement research project was originally commissioned in 2007, and was carried out by Involve for the NHS Institute for Innovation and Improvement. It looked at how people were using technologies to engage people across a variety of different sectors including healthcare, and to look at how this might develop in coming years.

Technology moves and develops very quickly, and the NHS stands to gain considerably from becoming an early adopter, through piloting and innovating new ways of involving patients, staff, public and carers. Learning more about what new tools have to offer alongside existing engagement mechanisms is essential to the future of a more patient and public centred health service. The web site contains information about planning your project, a really useful guide to the technology available from avatars to webinars and case studies.

Here are a few items from the list of principles the site publishes - issues to bear in mind when planning your armchair involvement project.

• Technology alone is not the answer: Armchair Involvement is about participation and engagement first and foremost, the digital tools available are a supplement, not a substitute for face to face and more traditional communication methods.
• Understand your participants first: Before beginning to choose tools, it is always best to know your participants’ preferred ways of engaging, and to involve them in the design process where possible
• If you build it, they might not come! Go to where the people are – if you are going to run an online engagement project, for example a discussion forum, it is always best to see if people are already engaging in existing forums. That way you might not need to build your own

www.institute.nhs.uk/building_capability/armchair_no_comment/armchair_involvement.html