Are you ready for patient engagement in health care?

Active patient engagement (PE) is increasingly viewed as essential to ensuring that patient-driven perspectives are considered throughout public health and the research process. However, guidance for PE in research does not exist, the evidence base for practice is limited, and we know relatively little about underpinning values that can impact on PE practice. An explicit statement of values seeks to align all stakeholders on the purpose, practice, and credibility of PE activities. An innovative, flexible, and transparent research environment is valued as essential to developing a trustworthy evidence base with which to underpin future guidance for good PE practice. The recent focus on PE acknowledges that patients have an important role to play in their own health care. This includes reading, understanding and acting on health information (health literacy), working together with clinicians to select appropriate treatments or management options (shared decision-making), and providing feedback on health-care processes and outcomes (quality improvement). This review explores the values that should underpin PE in contemporary public health research to help inform future good practice guidance.