Barriers and solutions for healthcare professionals to involve patients as partners in oncology research: Project RISE

BACKGROUND: Barriers preventing oncologists from engaging patients as research partners remain. This study aimed to understand oncologists' barriers to patient engagement and involvement (PEI) in research and identify solutions to overcome barriers. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS: = 10). Five hypotheses representing oncologists' barriers to PEI identified in phase I were tested in phase II: A) preference for physician-led approach to medicine; B) limited PEI value in research processes; C) misconceptions about approaching PEI; D) practical barriers to PEI; E) traditional research dynamics preventing PEI. RESULTS: Hypotheses C, D, and E were identified as the most critical and ranked in descending order of difficulty to overcome (D, E, and C). Solutions were ranked according to importance (whether oncologists perceived barriers as prominent within their communities) and feasibility (for stakeholders to find solutions). Solutions included leveraging institutional PEI teams, allocating funding for PEI, practical/logistical support for patient research partners, incentivising PEI, facilitating training, creating a patient research partner directory, and PEI guidelines. CONCLUSIONS: Enhanced support for oncologists and institutional incentives to encourage PEI in all aspects of research are required.