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Openness, flexibility and no fear of trying new things underpin the patient engagement strategy at the Institut du Savoir Montfort. Located in Ottawa, Monfort is leading OSSU’s COFFRE initiative (Communautés Ontariennes Francophones Facilitant la Recherche Équitable) to engage Francophone patients across Ontario. Their mission? To build a network of French-speaking patient partners in the province to advise or join research teams to embed the patient perspective in research.

Rather than use a one-size-fits all approach, the Monfort team recognizes the complexity of life, with time constraints, differing personal preferences and other stressors, and offers multiple ways to engage patients. In addition to matching patient partners with research projects, they offer a less time-intensive, more flexible approach.

“We’re trying a new process,” says Dr. Sharon Johnston, Associate Vice President, Research and Scientific Director, Institut du Savoir Montfort. “The big picture is that COFFRE aims to help health researchers in Ontario engage Francophone patients. There are lots of projects but most are in English which makes it less accessible for many Francophone patients.”

“We listen to patient partners, some who say they don’t want to be on a research team with a meeting next week,” says Dr. Johnston. “That’s not for everyone so we are adding another approach and one that may enable patient partners from all over the province to engage in research. We have a process in which a research team may seek a consultation with patients. It submits a project summary and questions to patients in our network to see if any are interested in learning more and joining a one-hour webinar. Research teams can then ask patients questions such as, what outcomes will be important, what questions should researchers ask patients interested in hearing about the project? Patients then give feedback, providing an injection of patient perspective earlier in the research process that may help the team think of new things. And sometimes the patient partner may be interested in joining the project.”

To increase the numbers of French-speaking partners, COFFRE targets Francophone groups and communities across the province and makes all materials available in French to entice Francophones to join the patient partner roster. Their website offers tools and tips for people to become patient partners.

Patients function like consultants, or focus group participants, where researchers look to experts, that is, patient partners, who can advise the research team.

Their approach involves evaluation to ensure things are working combined with a willingness to change what they’re doing, or to stop doing it entirely.

“We’re evaluating it to see if it’s beneficial to research teams and if it’s also good for patient partners. We heard being a patient partner is good for some, but not for all – many want to share their perspectives on research so that’s why we’re trying another approach.”

“We’re trying a bunch of things and will change or drop them – we’re ready to learn with patients and researcher teams,” says Dr. Johnston.

And it’s working: there are 64 registered Francophone patient partners in the network upon whom the COFFRE team can call to engage in research projects across the province.

Another innovation is engaging patient partners in assessing proposals for the hospital’s internal grant competition from Early Career Researchers. Patient partners review funding proposals and provide feedback on how to incorporate patient engagement, with the aim to educate newer researchers on the positive influence and importance of involving patients.

“These are teams that are promising and have put in a good effort. Being helped by a patient partner can help them improve and incorporate feedback in a different way. The idea is to get them to build in patient partnership from the start with patient feedback.”

Dr. Johnston is especially excited about their latest initiative, the first annual Monfort Research and Innovation Day on March 27, 2025, which brings together researchers from across the region for a research day en Français. Patient partners are invited, and several will be reviewers at the student poster session where students deliver elevator pitches to win best poster.

“This normalizes interacting with patients for the next generation and gets them to speak to patients, ask them questions too.”

Judging from the rapid and enthusiastic response from the 13 patient partners who volunteered on the day the research day invitation was sent, the team is on the right track.