Patient and Family Advisory Councils can be a great way to start involving and listening to the people who are affected by your work. Patient and Family Advisory Councils exist in many hospitals and health care systems. In a hospital, such a group can help improve:

• patient access,
• patient safety,
• and patient care.

Patient and Family Advisory Councils can also be one way to get the input of people who are affected by our research. In research, an advisory group can help:

• Recruit participants to a study
• Make instructions or the consent process understandable
• Help share the results.

Here are our current top 5 resources for helping to develop Patient and Family Advisory Councils. Communication-friendly versions of some tools for Advisory Councils are coming here soon!

Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ). Working with Patient and Families as Advisors: Implementation Handbook. 

Planetree. Patient Engagement in Research: A Toolkit for Patient-Family Advisory Councils. 

Institute for Patient and Family-Centered Care (IPFCC). Engaging PFACs in Stages of Research.

BJC HealthCare. A Toolkit for Creating a Patient and Advisory Council. 

Tsasis P, Nadesan N, Kuttiyappan K, Lin LD. (2017) Lessons learned in implementing Patient Family Advisory Councils in Ontario. Journal of Participatory Medicine. 9:e10.

What resources do you like? Post a comment below.