Patient authorship of clinical evidence: now and next
- Jon Hoggard
- Nov 1, 2024
- 6 min read
Updated: Dec 8, 2025
Introduction
Evidence relating to patients has always been at the heart of drug development; after all, every product to reach the market – even those which don’t – has relied on clinical trial data showing evidence of its safety and efficacy in patients. The whole industry is thus dependent on patients – and yet, they have historically been excluded from publication of the very evidence that wouldn’t exist without them. Wouldn’t you want a say in how data about you is communicated?
Indeed, it is perhaps surprising that the opportunity for patients to be involved in journal publications is a relatively recent evolution of the industry. It is an evolution which has allowed enrichment of the published literature, for example by provision of plain language summaries and inclusion of invaluable patient perspectives on clinical research (e.g., why a particular study is relevant to ‘real people’). [1] However, while the number of publications featuring patient co-authors is growing rapidly, [2] patient authorship still hugely lags behind other forms of including the patient voice in such papers, such as including data on patient-reported outcomes. So what can we as invested patient engagement professionals do to help patient authorship become more mainstream?
