Esther learned about how to partner with patients from a colleague with experience

Transcript

And, that team already had integrated three community scholars. That’s how they called them. And, I think, that’s a fantastic term to refer to the peer researchers. They had made sure that they would find three people who had a bit of a different background in their experience with living with HIV. We had a woman. We had an older gentleman, along with lots of other chronic conditions and, living in different parts of the country. And, I was fascinated by that idea that anytime we analyze a study and, we want to review those results, we talk to those community scholars about their experience. How does it, how would that research have any kind of impact on their lives? Or, why?

And, I had a colleague at the time, [name], who was a research associate on the team, as well and, she was already quite, she seemed to be quite experienced in doing this. So, I learned from her to always remember that at any step along the research process, to check in with these community members and, to make sure that they either agree with what we say or, really give us the input. And, they often have changed some of the things that we wanted to say or, some of the messages and, the way we would write and communicate. So, starting, since that project to me, so, now it’s such a natural thing, whenever I want to do any kind of research, it’s a given that I have to have research team members who have lived experience.

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