What is Patient-Oriented Research?

Traditionally, patient participation in health research has been limited to their role as research subjects on a project. With Patient-oriented Research (POR), there is a shift where patients become actively involved as research partners that engage in meaningful collaboration with research groups. Through POR, patient-partners become actively engaged in various aspects of the research project. Through this strategy, research is being conducted ‘with’ or ‘by’ patients rather than ‘for’ them in an effort to build a sustainable and accessible health care system that optimizes the health of all Canadians. Learn more about CIHR’s strategy for patient-oriented research


Patients as SubjectsPatients as Partners
Have no input on the research topic/area that is expected to be investigated by a team of researchers Collaborate with researchers to develop a research topic that is relevant and beneficial to the targeted patient population

Recruited to a research project by being contacted directly by the research team or finding an advertisement for the research projectAssist the research team in creating strategies to recruit patient-subjects and assist with the physical recruitment of patient-subjects
Review the patient-subject information forms for the research project with the research team to ensure understanding of the project they are participating in as a subject and sign consent formsAssist in writing patient-subject information forms which provide the patient-subject with the necessary objectives and details of the research project to make an informed decision
Provide data for the re-search study; undergo interviews or submit biological samples for testingAssist in designing data collection protocol for the study; conduct interviews of research subjects
To study the effects of the intervention, subjects are randomly assigned to the treatment or placebo groups according to the protocol established by the investigators Provide input on suggested treatment strategies they would like to see studied, as their lived experience informs their perception of what would be beneficial to the targeted patient population