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ObjectiveConsumer involvement is when patients (their families, friends, and caregivers) work with researchers on research projects. While health services are expected to support consumer-researcher collaborations, conducive environments still need to be developed, with limited research into how Australian health services support this practice. This study explores current consumer involvement in research activity and staff perceptions at an Australian tertiary hospital and health service.MethodsResearch-active employees at a health service were invited to participate in an online cross-sectional survey. It assessed experience with and confidence in involving consumers in research, the perceived value of consumer involvement, and considerations related to challenges, facilitators, and solutions to enhance consumer involvement in health service research.ResultsAmong 83 respondents, including medical, nursing, and allied health professionals, 54 completed the survey. Approximately half had experience with involving consumers in research. Over 80% recognised that involving consumers enhanced research relevance. Identified barriers included challenges in finding (46.6%) and compensating (59.3%) consumers, as well as deficiencies in researcher skills, knowledge (32.2%), and time constraints (39%). Facilitators comprised access to experienced researchers and educational opportunities. Moreover, 87% advocated for increased support to involve consumers within health services, with the appointment of a designated consumer involvement officer deemed the most beneficial solution by 92.5% of respondents.ConclusionsWhile individual barriers inhibit consumer involvement in research, more prominent institutional factors such as financial and technical support may determine successful and meaningful collaborations. As health services evolve towards co-design models in research, the outcomes of this study will guide initiatives aimed at enhancing consumer involvement in the research process within Australian health services.

Background: When a patient is discharged from hospital it is essential that their general practitioner (GPs) and community pharmacist are informed of changes to their medicines. This necessitates effective communication and information-sharing between hospitals and primary care clinicians., Objective: To identify priority medicine handover issues and solutions to inform the co-design and development of a multifaceted intervention., Method: A modified nominal group technique was used to reach consensus on medicine handover priority areas. The first hour of an interactive 2-hr workshop focused on ranking pre-identified issues drawn from literature. In the second hour, participants identified solutions that they then ranked from highest to lowest priority through an online platform. Descriptive statistics were used to analyse workshop data., Results: In total 32 participants attended the workshop including hospital doctors ( n  = 8, 25.0%), GPs and hospital pharmacists ( n  = 6 each, 18.8%), consumers and community pharmacists ( n  = 4 each, 12.5%), and both hospital and aged care facility nurses ( n  = 2 each 6.3%). From the list of 23 issues, the highest ranked issue was high workload and time pressures impacting the discharge process (22/32). From the list of 36 solutions, the participants identified two solutions that were equally ranked highest (12/27 each). They were mandating that patients leave hospital with a discharge summary, including medication reconciliation information and, developing an integrated information technology system where medication summary and notes are accessible for primary, secondary and tertiary health provider ., Conclusion: The consensus process highlighted challenges in hospital procedures where potential solutions may be implemented through co-design of a multifaceted intervention to improve medicine handover quality., Competing Interests: Declaration of conflicting interestsThe author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship and/or publication of this article.