Ranj Parmar is a principal business analyst and stroke survivor who has been part of the Academy Conference planning process for a number of years. Here he shares his experience of being involved in event planning:
"I couldn’t go back to work following my stroke, and I was looking for ways to make a meaningful contribution to the great healthcare system that supported me through my recovery. I was invited to attend the Academy’s Research and Improvement Conference, but I was slightly hesitant about going because looking at the agenda it seemed very medical and not a lot of focus on patients.
However, I attended the conference (several years ago) and unfortunately my suspicions were true. There was no patient focus in the sessions and I was actually asked to come up with solutions to very medical problems?! Do they know I am a patient?
Upon leaving the conference I gave some quite honest feedback as it felt like I was there as a ’tickbox’ exercise, but soon after I was contacted by the organisers of the conference and basically told "help us to fix it…". Well, this became very interesting, very quickly. A group of patients was set up (Side-by-Side) and we worked with the conference organisers to make the next event patient centric.
Moving on from this, patients have now opened the conference, introduced the breakout sessions, delivered breakout sessions, run their own session on how to engage with patients, and have been instrumental in not only the day itself, but also the planning of the conference."
