Meet a selection of Members from
the 2015 Member Review Panel
and read what they had to say
about their experience…
Daisy Gaunt
was diagnosed with
coeliac disease eight years ago, she had
always been anaemic and very tired but
it was never properly investigated.
“I work as a medical statistician on
clinical trials, so daily I am faced with
analysing the results of studies that
have been developed after funding
has been awarded. I took part in the
Member Review Panel as I thought I’d
like to be able to influence trials in an
area of research that has such a big
impact on my life and to see the other
side of the work that I do. It wasn’t
a big or onerous task to select the
studies which I thought could have the
most impact on coeliac disease. It was
interesting to see what researchers
thought would be important to
patients, which didn’t necessarily tally
up with my experience as a patient.
I would gladly take part again.”
They were then asked to rank the
research proposals in order of priority
for funding, from highest to lowest.
We wanted to make sure we had a
spread of ages and circumstances so
the Panel would have a good mix of
people. Members of the 2015 Panel
ranged in age from 23 to 78 years
and there were also parents of young
children diagnosed with coeliac disease.
Some Members had only recently been
diagnosed but the longest time since
diagnosis was 64 years.
48
MEMBER
REVIEW
PANEL
”
I
n 2014, we introduced the Member Review Panel to give our Members the
opportunity to take part in selecting what research we fund.
Last year, 55 of you enrolled to take part in the panel, almost twice the
number in 2014. Panel Members received a summary of each of the research
applications and had three weeks to complete the review, which involved reading
the summaries and completing a short online questionnaire.
In the questionnaire, Members were asked to comment on three statements for
each proposal, from a multiple choice of answers:
• the summary is written in ‘plain English’ and I understand it
• the research could contribute to improving the lives of people living with
coeliac disease and/or dermatitis herpetiformis
• I recommend the project should be funded.
If you could help us decide
what research to fund,
what would you select?
