Real experience
Insight from people who live with a condition, use a treatment or care for or support someone who does.
Consultant Patient connects healthcare organisations, pharma, medtech and research teams with people whose lived experience can improve products, research and care pathways. Every engagement is paid, consented and properly governed.
A Consultant Patient® is a person who is currently registered with, and has completed verification by, Consultant Patient Ltd, and who contributes expertise gained through living with a health condition, using a treatment, or caring for or supporting someone with a condition.
Verification confirms identity and age and includes a review of the person’s lived experience with them. Registration with Consultant Patient Ltd is not a statutory or professional registration. Consultant Patients do not give clinical or medical advice in this role.
Scientific, clinical and technical expertise is built through training, research and practice. Lived experience is expertise built through living with a condition. It differs from person to person and reaches into every part of daily life. That range isn’t noise. It reveals what observation or statistical approximation can miss.
Insight from people who live with a condition, use a treatment or care for or support someone who does.
A defined role, a written brief, informed consent and fair payment for every contribution.
Findings your team can act on, reported clearly and on time.
For organisations
Work with Consultant Patients whose lived experience is relevant to your product, study or service. We define the question with you, find the right people and deliver insight you can act on.
Work with Consultant PatientsFor people with lived experience
If you live with a condition, have used a treatment, or care for or support someone who does, you have knowledge that can help shape better products, research and services. You don’t need clinical or research qualifications. As a Consultant Patient, you’re paid for your contribution and expertise.
Become a Consultant PatientConsultant Patients help shape the products, research, services and decisions that affect people living with a condition.
Understand what helps or prevents people from getting a diagnosis, starting treatment or continuing with it—from access and stigma to side effects and everyday demands.
Design and improve services with the people who use them, identifying gaps, practical barriers and where support is needed.
Develop and test devices, digital tools and apps with the people who will use them, so they work in everyday life.
Shape research questions, study design and participant materials with people who live with the condition. Bring their expertise into interpreting findings and understanding what they mean in practice.
Bring lived experience into decisions about what to develop, where to invest and which needs to prioritise, so your strategy reflects what matters to the people it will affect.
Shape policies, programmes and commissioning decisions with the people they affect, drawing on their experience to understand gaps, barriers and the support needed.
Create and test patient information, consent materials and campaigns with the people they need to reach, checking for clarity, relevance and trust.
Assess whether a product, service or programme is working for the people it was designed for, what difference it makes to their lives and what would improve it.
Discover how experiences, needs and barriers differ across communities. Use that insight to shape products, services and research that include people too often left out.
Guide decisions about health data and AI with the people they affect. Bring their priorities, expectations and concerns into development, use and evaluation, including what it takes to earn their trust.
Every project delivers structured insight and reporting your team can use, share and act on.
Four steps, from your question to insight you can act on.
We work with you to clarify what you need to understand and agree the approach, format and outputs.
We invite Consultant Patients whose lived experience is relevant to your question. Each Consultant Patient chooses whether to take part, with clear terms and agreed payment for each contribution.
We facilitate interviews, panels, workshops and testing. These can be standalone engagements or programmes that combine methods and involve Consultant Patients at different stages, with informed consent and confidentiality throughout.
We deliver structured insight and reporting that address your question and inform your team’s decisions.
Simple for organisations. Meaningful for Consultant Patients.
Start a conversationLived experience deserves the same rigour and professional respect as any other expertise. Informed consent, confidentiality and fair payment are built into how we work.
Consultant Patients receive clear information about each project, including how each contribution will be used, before deciding whether to take part.
Registered with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ZC142572). Reports and insight shared with organisations do not identify any Consultant Patient without that Consultant Patient’s explicit consent.
Consultant Patients are paid for each contribution, with the work, payment and terms agreed in writing.
We invite Consultant Patients whose experience is relevant to each project. Each Consultant Patient chooses whether to take part.
We discuss access needs with Consultant Patients and agree reasonable adjustments to support participation.
Engagements are structured to support the ABPI Code’s requirements for contracted services, including documented need, written contracts and fair market value.
A Consultant Patient is a person who is currently registered with, and has completed verification by, Consultant Patient Ltd, and who contributes expertise gained through living with a health condition, using a treatment, or caring for or supporting someone with a condition. Consultant Patients do not give clinical or medical advice in this role. Consultant Patients choose which opportunities to take part in and are paid for agreed work.
People with relevant lived experience can become Consultant Patients. You don’t need clinical or research qualifications, but you must register with and be verified by Consultant Patient Ltd. Registration as a Consultant Patient does not in itself confer a clinical or professional qualification. To register your interest, email participant@consultantpatient.com with your name and the country you live in. Please don’t include any health details in your first email.
Yes. Consultant Patients are paid for each contribution, with the scope of work, payment and terms agreed in writing before deciding whether to take part.
Our service goes beyond PPI. We provide lived expertise for research, product development, services, strategy, policy and evaluation. Consultant Patients contribute as paid experts through defined projects and programmes, supported by governance, structured insight and reporting. PPI can be part of that work; it does not define its scope.
NHS and other healthcare organisations, pharmaceutical and life sciences companies, medtech and health technology companies, universities and research groups, charities and patient organisations, and public sector and policy bodies.
Consultant Patient Ltd is registered with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ZC142572). Reports and insight shared with organisations do not identify any Consultant Patient without that Consultant Patient’s explicit consent. Personal information is shared with an organisation only with the person’s explicit consent for that engagement and a signed data sharing agreement. See our privacy policy.
Tell us what you’re working on and what you want to achieve. Let’s explore how Consultant Patients can contribute.
Start a conversationRegister your interest with Consultant Patient Ltd to explore opportunities to contribute and be paid for your expertise.
Become a Consultant Patient