What our Patient & Public Involvement & Engagement team say
Sally D.
"I live with multiple long term conditions and so do members of my family. I believe we need to take a step back and look at people with long term conditions more wholistically rather than just treating their individual conditions separately.
This is what MELD -B aims to do.
By looking at how people like me develop MLTCs I hope we will be able to improve their care and one day even prevent conditions developing."
Jim M.
"My mission is to ensure that research helps to avoid health conditions arising through a person's life, which may increase in number and prevent a long and happy retirement.
Maybe then, we can all be doing parachute jumps at 90!"
Jack W.
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"It's an enjoyable experience to be working effectively with researchers and other experts in their field with MELD-B. It has real potential to open new questions about how we prevent and offer new interventions to those living with multiple long-term conditions. In a context where health and social care are under ever-increasing strain to support the population, this might help to change the direction of people's life-course."
Lynn L.
"I have worked closely with the WP1 team to produce the qualitative evidence summary on the work of living with multiple long term conditions. I have inputted into every part of the project and was supported to read the final included papers looking for evidence of patient and Public Involvement, an issue which is important to me. We made time for reflexive discussions, challenged ourselves and each other and recognised the emotional labour involved in the topic. I feel our findings were richer due to the involvement of multiple positionalites and perspectives, including people like me who live with complex multiple long term conditions. "
One of the MELD-B contributors
"MELD-B is a research project to study the causes of MLTC at an early age and to prevent MLTC by using AI in datasets. This has given me a better understanding of the onset and the prevention of the conditions."
One of the MELD-B contributors
"Great research project with use of AI to gather knowledge in healthcare data to find out if conditions occur in the early stages of life i.e. environmental effects, education and socio economic factors."
Samina B.
"'For too long health conditions have been seen as individual problems for people with multi-morbidity, whether its Mental Health or Physical Health. Using data and AI to see what support mechanisms would have helped the patient journey, but also focusing on giving people the tools to manage their health conditions."
Rebecca L.
"As someone living with multiple long term health conditions(MLTHC) I feel this is a significant and vital piece of research. The impact of multiple health problems are broad from social, economic to psychological. The cost to the individual and society is huge. This research gives hope that key triggers or causes could be found that increases an individuals risk to increasing MLHC, and interventions created to stop this happening."
Chris KP.
"I am finding being a lay panel member on MELD-B really interesting. In 1991, I gave up my career, to become a full time, unpaid, family carer to my husband, who has multiple long-term conditions. I was also a sandwich carer, for several years, caring for my mother with lung cancer and her partner who had dementia.
Due to my husband having compromised immunity, we shielded from March 2020 till March 2024, only attending medical appointments during that period. I finally ventured out for a haircut in March 2024, and donated 18 inches of hair to The Little Princess Trust.
Still being extremely cautious about venturing out, but I am loving the fact that I can still be involved in PPIE research, thanks to the internet"
Rosie M.
"Living with multiple long-term conditions (MLTC's) is often difficult and demanding. They can all too easily affect the ability to do the things most people take for granted and may result in the loss of employment and even relationships. There are many conditions that give rise to hidden disabilities, and dealing with several at the same time is itself disabling.
My hope is that MELD-B will lead to greater understanding of both the origin of such conditions and the way their combined effect affects the day-to-day lives of those who suffer. I also hope that the research will enable the development of methodologies that will provide opportunities for treatment plans to be put in place earlier than at present."