The role of patients in medical research at AMRC conference

The AMRC (Association of Medical Research Charities) represents the charitable research sector giving a joint voice across issues affecting not just eye research but research into so many debilitating conditions. This year’s conference was no exception. It was a stellar line-up of influencers and giving a patient perspective was the wonderful Irenie Ekkeshis on behalf of Fight for Sight.

With over 170 people from research charities, pharmaceutical companies and policy makers gathered together you might envisage a rather intellectual day but it is always stimulating and thought provoking.

Dr Dolores Conroy our Research Director and I represented Fight for Sight and spread ourselves around the guests making sure sight loss remained high on everyone’s agenda.

The theme for the day was the changing landscape for medical research and the role of patients. We at Fight for Sight were incredibly proud to have Irenie giving a very personal patient perspective. The rallying cry of the day was to put patients at the heart of research – something that was heard loud and clear as Irenie got the longest applause of the day.

From collaboration to patient data and from the growing role of patients to speeding up access to treatments nothing was off limits during the discussions of the day.

If you want to know more about the agenda check out the AMRC blog.