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Public involvement

The ASCEND PLUS trial was developed in partnership with patients and members of the public, to help ensure that:

  • the participant experience is relevant and beneficial to them
  • the safety and wellbeing of the participants is protected
  • recruitment to the trial is successful
  • participants remain engaged throughout the trial.

 The patient and public involvement activities focused on three aspects:

  1. Six patient and public focus groups addressed specific issues before the trial started. These focus groups largely involved people with type 2 diabetes and included people from diverse backgrounds across the UK.
  2.  An ASCEND PLUS Public Advisory Group (PAG) was established in September 2021, with representatives from a diverse group of patients. The PAG provides feedback, advice, and opinions on many different aspects of ASCEND PLUS over the lifecycle of the trial.
  3. Two members of the PAG have joined the Trial Steering Committee, which oversees and directs the conduct of ASCEND PLUS. 

The PAG was crucial in helping to design the trial, including developing the participant information, the online questionnaires and videos used for the trial and this website. The group will continue to contribute throughout the whole trial, for example helping to write participant newsletters, advising on ways to keep participants engaged and helping with the interpretation and presentation of the ASCEND PLUS results at the end of the trial.

Listen to our public contributors, Andrew Toal and Dianna Moylan, sharing their experience of patient and public involvement in ASCEND PLUS.