For organisations
Bring lived expertise into your products, research, services and strategic decisions. We design and deliver projects and programmes with fair payment, informed consent and clear governance built in.
We work with organisations whose products, research, services, strategies and policies affect people living with health conditions.
A Consultant Patient® is a person who is currently registered with, and has completed verification by, Consultant Patient Ltd, and who contributes expertise gained through living with a health condition, using a treatment, or caring for or supporting someone with a condition.
Verification confirms identity and age and includes a review of the person’s lived experience with them. Registration with Consultant Patient Ltd is not a statutory or professional registration. Consultant Patients do not give clinical or medical advice in this role.
Design and improve services and care pathways with the people who use them. Bring lived expertise into strategy, commissioning, policy and evaluation, so decisions reflect the priorities and everyday realities of the people they affect.
Explore what shapes diagnosis, treatment decisions and everyday life with a condition. Use lived expertise to inform research, service development and strategy, and understand how care pathways work in practice. Engagements are structured to support the ABPI Code’s requirements for contracted services.
Develop and test devices, digital tools and apps with the people who will use them. Identify practical needs, assess usability and bring lived expertise into decisions about design, accessibility, health data and AI.
Co-design research with Consultant Patients, from setting priorities and shaping questions to developing studies and participant materials. Draw on Consultant Patients’ expertise to examine findings, inform interpretation and explore implications for people living with the condition.
Strengthen your strategy, information, services and campaigns with the expertise of Consultant Patients. Work alongside the communities you serve to identify priorities, shape programmes and evaluate the difference they make.
Shape policies and programmes with the people they affect, drawing on Consultant Patients’ experience to understand gaps, barriers and the support needed.
Choose a single format or combine several into a programme of work. Each one is scoped with you, facilitated by us and reported clearly.
Explore a defined question through one-to-one or small-group interviews with Consultant Patients whose lived expertise is relevant to your topic, condition, pathway or service.
Draw on a group of Consultant Patients for structured advice, discussion and feedback on questions, services, products, materials or ideas.
Work alongside Consultant Patients in facilitated sessions with your team and other expert stakeholders to shape priorities, services, pathways, products, research or policy.
Test digital tools, devices, services and materials with Consultant Patients to identify what works, what gets in the way and what needs to change.
Involve Consultant Patients in reviewing patient information, study documents and findings for clarity, relevance and how accurately they reflect lived experience. Bring Consultant Patients’ expertise into interpreting findings and understanding their practical implications.
Combine formats and contributions over time, with opportunities for Consultant Patients to contribute at key stages of product development, service redesign, strategy or research.
Every format ends in structured insight and reporting your team can use, share and act on.
We actively seek to involve Consultant Patients whose experiences are relevant to your work, including those too often left out. Fair payment, clear briefs, accessible formats and support for individual needs help Consultant Patients contribute. These different experiences reveal needs, priorities and challenges that might otherwise be missed.
We invite Consultant Patients whose experience is relevant to your work—whether that involves a condition, treatment, care pathway, caring role or particular set of circumstances. Each person chooses whether to take part.
Informed consent, confidentiality, data protection and respect for each Consultant Patient’s independence are built into how we work. Clear terms establish what people are contributing to and how their input will be used.
We agree the questions, approach and outputs with you, then design and facilitate the work around those needs. Structured insight and reporting support decisions about your product, service, research, policy or strategy.
Consultant Patients can identify practical, emotional and system-level barriers early. This expertise helps you assess how a product or service fits into everyday life, improve its design and address obstacles to use.
Four steps, from your question to insight you can act on.
We work with you to clarify what you need to understand and agree the approach, format and outputs.
We invite Consultant Patients whose lived experience is relevant to your question. Each Consultant Patient chooses whether to take part, with clear terms and agreed payment for each contribution.
We facilitate interviews, panels, workshops and testing. These can be standalone engagements or programmes that combine methods and involve Consultant Patients at different stages, with informed consent and confidentiality throughout.
We deliver structured insight and reporting that address your question and inform your team’s decisions.
Each engagement is scoped and quoted for your question.
Start a conversationLived experience deserves the same rigour and professional respect as any other expertise. Here is what that means for your organisation.
Consultant Patients receive clear information about each project, including how each contribution will be used, before deciding whether to take part.
Registered with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ZC142572). Reports and insight shared with your organisation do not identify any Consultant Patient without that Consultant Patient’s explicit consent. Identifiable information is shared with your organisation only with the Consultant Patient’s explicit consent for that engagement and a signed data sharing agreement.
The scope, outputs and terms of each engagement are agreed in writing before work starts.
Consultant Patients are paid for each contribution, with the work, payment and terms agreed in writing.
Engagements are structured to support the ABPI Code’s requirements for contracted services, including documented need, written contracts and fair market value. We keep payment records that let us provide the aggregate figures needed for annual disclosure of contracted services.
We discuss access needs with Consultant Patients and agree reasonable adjustments to support participation.
Consultant Patients contribute lived experience, not medical advice, diagnosis or treatment.
You can commission interviews, panels, workshops, co-design, user testing and reviews of materials and outputs. These can be standalone engagements or programmes combining different methods and contributions over time. We agree the scope and outputs with you, including structured insight and reporting.
Yes. Pharmaceutical and life sciences companies can draw on lived expertise to inform research, service development and strategy. Consultant Patients bring insight into diagnosis, treatment decisions, everyday life with a condition and how care pathways work in practice. Engagements are structured to support the ABPI Code’s requirements for contracted services, including documented need, written contracts and fair market value.
Consultant Patients work with research teams to set priorities, shape questions, co-design studies and develop participant materials. Consultant Patients also examine findings, inform interpretation and explore what the results mean for people living with the condition.
Reports and insight shared with your organisation do not identify any Consultant Patient without that Consultant Patient’s explicit consent. Identifiable information is shared with your organisation only with the Consultant Patient’s explicit consent for that engagement and a signed data sharing agreement.
No. In this role, Consultant Patients contribute lived expertise. Consultant Patient Ltd provides non-clinical advisory and insight services, not medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Registration as a Consultant Patient does not in itself confer a clinical or professional qualification.
Email contact@consultantpatient.com with what you’re working on and what you want to achieve. We work with you to define the questions and agree the approach, scope and outputs before work begins.
Share your question, your timeline and what you want to achieve. We’ll explore with you how Consultant Patients can contribute.
Start a conversationHave lived experience yourself? Become a Consultant Patient