Skip to main content
ACR Convergence 2025 Main banner
Final Program


Schedule at a Glance
Legend
Program: Scientific Session
General Topic: ARP

From Nice to Necessary: Involving Patients as Essential Members of Your Research Team

Tuesday, October 28, 2025
2:30 PM – 3:30 PM Central Time

    Moderator(s)

  • Marian Hannan, DSc

    Marcus Institute for Aging Research, Hebrew SeniorLife
    Milton, Massachusetts, United States

    Disclosure(s): No financial relationships with ineligible companies to disclose

  • JT

    Joel Thompson, MA, DPT

    University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
    Cary, North Carolina, United States

    Disclosure(s): No financial relationships with ineligible companies to disclose

    • Session Coordinator(s)

  • Matthew Bunyard, MD, RhMSUS

    Cleveland Clinic
    Moreland Hills, Ohio, United States

    Disclosure information not submitted.

Patient engagement in research involves the meaningful participation of patients throughout the research process, ensuring their perspectives, experiences, and priorities are incorporated. This approach aims to make research more relevant, effective, and applicable to patients. Rather than being passive participants, patients actively collaborate in research design, execution, and dissemination. The benefits of engagement include: 1. Research that aligns more closely with patient priorities, 2. Better implementation of findings in clinical practice, and 3. Enhanced transparency and trust between researchers and the patient community. This session will help attendees recognize the value of involving people with lived experience as key members of the research team (patient partners). Participants will gain the tools to empower patient partners to engage across all stages of a research project. Topics covered will include identifying potential patient partners, building skills and training for both researchers and patients, mentoring, fostering relationships between researchers and patient partners, and addressing barriers to successful partnerships. Attendees will leave with increased knowledge and confidence in patient engagement, ready to collaborate on integrated research teams.

Learning Objectives:

  • Define the value and benefits of patient engagement in research
  • Identify patient partners, understand the possible roles they can play in research and their roles and how to engage them at each step of the research process
  • Utilize tools and resources that can support meaningful engagement, implementation and evaluation of patient engagement activities
  • Describe the role of a knowledge broker in facilitating patient and researcher partnerships

Presentations:

  • 2:30 PM – 3:00 PM Central Time
    Understanding the Values and Benefits of Patient Engagement in Research

    Speaker: Veena Ranganath, MD, MS – UCLA

  • 3:00 PM – 3:30 PM Central Time
    Tools and Resources to Support Patient Engagement in Research

    Speaker: Adena Batterman, LCSW,MSW – Hospital for Special Surgery