Putting Patients First: Celebrating the importance of listening to lived experience

Danielle Lavallee, Chief Scientific Officer & Senior Vice President, Research & Innovation, Health Research BC, speaks at the Putting Patients First conference on March 3, 2026.

The eighth Putting Patients First conference brought together more than 450 people from within and outside British Columbia with one common goal: listening to patient voices to shape the future of health research and care.

The event, hosted by the BC SUPPORT Unit (part of Health Research BC), explored how listening to lived experience is improving health care. It fostered shared learning and deepened ongoing conversations about how to bring diverse voices together to solve shared health problems and inspire change.

“Patient voices are the most important at the table. Because we’re the ones whose real lives are impacted,” said Sherri Mytopher, a longtime Patient Partner with the BC SUPPORT Unit.

That sentiment was echoed throughout the conference by speakers and participants. Sessions explored real ways that incorporating findings from lived experience is improving healthcare – through 32 supported projects and programs.

As emergency physician Dr. Kendall Ho explained during one breakout session, a doctor may only be able to predict a handful of pain points when a patient undergoes treatment – but the person getting treatment could name several dozen. It was just one example of why including lived experience is essential to identify problems and solve them together. 

“A learning community is strongest when the table is crowded – with researchers, clinicians, policy-makers, funders, Indigenous leaders, students, caregivers, and patients,” said Patient Partner and Health Research BC Board Member Sunny Loo, who helped close the conference.

The day before the conference, patient partners gathered to exchange ideas, take part in a Q&A with keynote speakers, and share insights drawn from their own experiences. These conversations will inform improvements to initiatives like the REACH BC platform, while also exploring how people with lived experience can shape research in new ways, from helping define research questions to contributing to academic publications.

“By listening more closely and collaborating more thoughtfully, we have challenged ourselves to design systems, policies, and practices that work for patients. Not just in theory – but in real life,” said Monica Mamut, Unit Director, BC SUPPORT Unit.

Funding patient-oriented research was a progressive move by the Canadian Institutes for Health Research in 2011, Monica explained during her opening remarks. It was a national commitment to ensure that high quality research is developed with the expertise of patients, the people it impacts most. It helped make research more relevant so that evidence can inform clinical practice instead of sitting on a shelf.

“The BC SUPPORT Unit has helped build phenomenal capacity for patient-oriented research here in the province,” said Danielle Lavallee, Chief Scientific Officer & Senior Vice President, Research & Innovation, Health Research BC. “It has really helped us evolve how we work as a provincial agency to build talent and catalyze solutions for health research systems.”

Conversations about finding health solutions together, built by bringing together diverse perspectives and encouraging learning, will continue elevating patient voices. Health Research BC and the BC SUPPORT Unit are supporting several initiatives that further advance the inclusion of lived experience in research and care:

• Five Days in May is a series of free virtual events open to anyone that highlight health research happening in BC.
• Advancing the Use of Evidence in Seniors’ Home and Community Care program addresses population aging and aims to improve care for seniors. It supports implementing evidence-based interventions that will help seniors live more independently in their homes and communities.
• A new team-based funding opportunity launching this spring will strengthen collaborative and community-connected health research. It brings together researchers, research users, and people with lived experience to co-design and deliver impactful knowledge translation activities.