Department of Family Medicine, McMaster University, 1280 Main St W, Hamilton, ON, L8S 4K1, Canada.
Centre for Health Economics and Policy Analysis (CHEPA), McMaster University, 1280 Main St W, Hamilton, ON, L8S 4K1, Canada.
Health Res Policy Syst. 2023 Jan 25;21(1):12. doi: 10.1186/s12961-022-00954-8.
With the sharp increase in the involvement of patients (including family and informal caregivers) as active participants, collaborators, advisors and decision-makers in health systems, a new role has emerged: the patient partner. The role of patient partner differs from other forms of patient engagement in its longitudinal and bidirectional nature. This systematic review describes extant work on how patient partners are conceptualized and engaged in health systems. In doing so, it furthers the understanding of the role and activities of patient partners, and best practices for future patient partnership activities.
A systematic review was conducted of peer-reviewed literature published in English or French that describes patient partner roles between 2000 and 2021 in any country or sector of the health system. We used a broad search strategy to capture descriptions of longitudinal patient engagement that may not have used words such as "partner" or "advisor".
A total of 506 eligible papers were identified, representing patient partnership activities in mostly high-income countries. These studies overwhelmingly described patient partnership in health research. We identified clusters of literature about patient partnership in cancer and mental health. The literature is saturated with single-site descriptive studies of patient partnership on individual projects or initiatives. There is a lack of work synthesizing impacts, facilitating factors and outcomes of patient partnership in healthcare.
There is not yet a consolidated understanding of the role, activities or impacts of patient partners. Advancement of the literature has been stymied by a lack of consistently used terminology. The literature is ready to move beyond single-site descriptions, and synthesis of existing pockets of high-quality theoretical work will be essential to this evolution.
随着患者（包括家庭和非正式照顾者）作为医疗体系中的积极参与者、协作者、顾问和决策者的角色的深度参与，一种新的角色出现了：患者伙伴。患者伙伴的角色与其他形式的患者参与不同，具有长期性和双向性。本系统综述描述了现有的关于如何将患者伙伴概念化并融入医疗体系的工作。通过这样做，它进一步理解了患者伙伴的角色和活动，以及未来患者伙伴活动的最佳实践。
对 2000 年至 2021 年间在任何国家或医疗体系部门描述患者伙伴角色的同行评审文献进行了系统综述，文献语言为英语或法语。我们使用了广泛的搜索策略来捕捉可能没有使用“伙伴”或“顾问”等词的长期患者参与的描述。
共确定了 506 篇符合条件的论文，这些论文代表了主要在高收入国家开展的患者伙伴活动。这些研究绝大多数描述了医疗研究中的患者伙伴关系。我们确定了与癌症和心理健康方面的患者伙伴关系相关的文献集群。文献中充斥着关于个别项目或倡议中患者伙伴关系的单站点描述性研究。缺乏综合医疗保健中患者伙伴关系的影响、促进因素和结果的工作。
目前对于患者伙伴的角色、活动或影响还没有统一的理解。术语使用不一致阻碍了文献的发展。文献已经准备好超越单站点描述，对现有高质量理论工作的综合将是这一发展的关键。
