Table 3 Organisational and policy visions for public involvement – role, politics and nature

Role of vision

∙ Organisational vision to govern own involvement or issue guidance to develop value-based involvement through organisational policies and strategies [15,16,17, 56, 63]

∙ Value of clear visions to support public involvement at national level and in organisations [52, 53, 62]

Politics of vision

∙ Potential for visions to advance organisational self-interest and sustain status quo [19]

∙ Rise of public involvement reflecting increased public scepticism or concern [39, 40]

∙ Rise of public involvement reflecting particular political imperatives that advantage some publics and disadvantage others (e.g. New Labour, patient choice, business development) [19, 40,41,42]

Nature of vision

Key constituents:

 ∙ Patients as service users and persons affected by illness (also caregivers and families) with experience-based knowledge of health conditions, treatments and care pathways – in policy reports and scholarly papers [1, 4, 15, 16, 43]

  ◦ Interests in diverse types of health research [2, 53, 62]

 ∙ Communities with collective expertise derived from history or identity, often involving social disadvantage, including inequities in access to care and disparities in social opportunity or health outcomes – in scholarly papers [38, 41, 44,45,46]

  ◦ Specific interests in population health, health equity and social determinants of health [45, 51, 61]

Approach to involvement:

 ∙ Partnership and shared control [49, 50] or participatory and action-oriented research

 ∙ Involvement spectrum, including communication about research, fundraising for research and participation in research [13, 17, 52]