What is the International Community of Practice?

In 2016, the Keele project team brought together key stakeholders and networks linked to JIGSAW-E to share knowledge and learn from each other – the ‘Community of Practice’.

A Community of Practice is a practical approach to knowledge mobilisation. It brings people together as a way of exchanging and implementing knowledge. A Community of Practice is a group of people who share a concern or a passion for something they do and learn how to do it better through regular communication and information sharing.

The JIGSAW-E Community of Practice launched in Staffordshire, UK in 2016. Further meetings have been held in Madrid Spain, and Liverpool, UK. Regular meetings between project teams and PPIE Leads take place monthly and the team are in contact via email.

Patient and Public Involvement and Engagement (PPIE) has played an important part of the Community of Practice and has helped to shape the roll out of JIGSAW-E across the five countries. PPIE has had an active role in adapting the JIGSAW-E innovations and patient information resources so that they are understandable, useful and accessible for the different patient populations, though the Patient Panel (See below). PPIE has also been key to understanding and engaging with the local patient population and clinical practices in the respective countries to help influence decision makers to adopt JIGSAW-E and support its long term implementation.

 

What is the Patient Panel?

The JIGSAW-E Patient Panel is an international group of patients who all have experience of osteoarthritis. The patient panel is made up of patients from each of the five countries which are part of the JIGSAW-E project. These are:

  • UK
  • Netherlands
  • Denmark
  • Norway
  • Portugal

In 2018 the Patient Panel will be extending to include Scotland and France as these countries start to implement JIGSAW-E.

Representatives from each JIGSAW-E country have kindly volunteered their time and experience to join the JIGSAW-E Patient Panel, to make surew that the implementation of JIGSAW-E remains patient focussed. Patient Panel members advise their project team  about what patients in their country think about the JIGSAW-E service.

Initially the Patient Panel started with the patients who attended the two day international JIGSAW-E project launch at Keele in 2016. It has now expanded to include 17 patient champions and has links with several patient organisations across Europe. These include:

  • Arthritis Research UK
  • Liga Portuguesa contra as Doenças Reumáticas, Portugal
  • Poly- Artrose Lotgenoten Vereniging, Netherlands, poly-artrose.nl

The only knowledge needed to join the JIGSAW-E Patient Panel is experience of living with a condition. We want to hear the opinions, thoughts and advice of patients and families for the project. Patient Panel members know so much more about how a health problem can impact their lives and can therefore help to make sure that the implementation of JIGSAW-E stays relevant to patients.

The role of the Patient Panel is to:

  • Help support the roll out and uptake of JIGSAW-E
  • Help raise the awareness of the project with other patients
  • Ensure that the project stays relevant to patients and is culturally acceptable