GSU Community Engagement and Involvement (CEI) training and consultation session at CMC Ludhiana, India
The NIHR Global Health Research Unit on Global Surgery (GSU) recently held its first international prioritisation event since the beginning of the pandemic in India, with various meetings taking place in New Delhi, Ludhiana and Kolkata.
Our first overview of the activities that took place focuses on the CEI training session and public consultation at Christian Medical College Ludhiana, India on 29th September 2022.
The training was attended by surgeons, medical students and community health workers with the aim of teaching the fundamentals of CEI and its implementation in research. CEI is a way of collaboratively working with communities who are most likely affected by research outcomes. This includes getting the perspectives of patient, carers and community leaders about the acceptability of a study and strategies to implementing and disseminating findings of completed research.
Following the training, patients and carers joined the group for a consultation on the acceptability of TIGER– a proposed trial that aims to increase access to inguinal hernia surgeries among patients in low and middle-income countries. GSU had done initial work with patients in Ghana but wanted to find out TIGER’s acceptability in the Punjab region.
CEI is an important priority of the Unit and is integrated in all stages of the research it leads. On the 27th of September, leads from GSU Hubs attended a meeting in New Delhi to discuss, among other things, future directions for CEI including a community co-developed patient survey on surgical site infections.