Become a Consultant Patient — Consultant Patient

Become a
Consultant Patient

Your lived experience is real expertise. Consultant Patient creates structured, ethical and fairly paid opportunities to contribute to research, service design, policy and health innovation.

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What is a Consultant Patient?

A Consultant Patient is someone whose lived experience of a health condition, treatment pathway, care system, caring role or family experience is recognised as genuine expertise.

This may include patients, carers, family members, bereaved relatives and others with relevant lived experience.

As a Consultant Patient, you may contribute your insight to research, service design, policy, health technology and healthcare innovation — helping organisations make better decisions based on real-world experience.

Your time is paid, your involvement is your choice, and your experience is treated with the respect, clarity and governance it deserves.

what we do

Lived experience is real expertise

Your knowledge of living with a condition — or supporting someone who does — is something no textbook, dataset or professional discipline can fully replicate.
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Every lived experience carries a different perspective: practical knowledge, emotional understanding, system navigation, service experience and insight into what matters in real life — things formal evidence alone may miss.
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As a Consultant Patient, that expertise is put to work shaping research, services, policy and health innovation through structured, ethical engagement that recognises its value.

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WHY CONSULTANT PATIENT

Built on governance, not goodwill

Your lived experience should not be extracted informally, used without clarity, or treated as unpaid goodwill.

Consultant Patient is built around ethical engagement, fair and transparent payment, clear expectations, contributor independence and strong data protection.

Each opportunity is intended to be clearly scoped, optional and properly governed — so your expertise is taken seriously, handled responsibly and valued as the contribution it is.

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ways to contribute

There are many ways to contribute — always paid, always your choice. Here are some examples:
‍Interviews and conversations
‍Provide insight one-to-one or in small groups on topics where your lived experience is directly relevant.
‍Patient and contributor panels
‍Take part in structured discussions, giving feedback on specific questions, services, products or ideas.
‍Workshops and co-design
‍Work alongside teams to shape services, pathways, products, research and policy.
‍Reviewing and testing
‍Review digital tools, materials, communications and products before they are used more widely.
‍Shaping research and insight
‍Contribute to the interpretation of findings, priorities and recommendations so they reflect what genuinely matters to people with lived experience.

Consultant Patient Ltd provides non-clinical services. We do not provide medical advice, healthcare, treatment, diagnosis, clinical decision-making, or any regulated healthcare activity.

Who your insight may reach

Your contribution may inform research, services, policy, products and decisions across healthcare and health innovation.
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NHS organisations · Academic and research institutions · Health technology companies · Life sciences and pharmaceutical companies · Public sector and policy bodies

Whatever the organisation, the principles are the same: your contribution is paid, your involvement is your choice, and your information is protected under clear governance.

Get Involved

We’re currently building our contributor network ahead of launch. If you have lived experience of a health condition, treatment pathway, care system, caring role or family experience, and would like to hear about future paid opportunities, register your interest and we’ll be in touch as the network opens.

Please don’t include detailed medical or personal information in your first message — just let us know you’d like to register your interest. Before we ask you anything about your health or experiences, we’ll explain clearly how your information is collected, used and protected.