Patient engagement in research: Lessons from the ASH Research Collaborative Patient Collaboration Team

In December 2024 I was asked to lead a Patient Engagement Work Group for the ASH Research Collaborative (ASH RC) Multiple Myeloma Research Network. The goal was to ensure meaningful, ongoing patient engagement in core functions of the ASH RC. Under my leadership, over the course of 2025 we met our key deliverables including recruiting a diverse team of patient and care partner advocates, reviewing best practices in patient-centered research and engagement, reviewing and scoring research proposals, collaborating as active members of research teams including co-authorship on abstracts accepted by ASH, and creating a charter to serve as the foundation for a proposed, permanent “Patient Collaboration Team.” The impact of these work group deliverables led to approval by ASH RC senior leaders to approve the creation of the PCT, which I chair. This poster will describe lessons learned in the work group stage as well as plans for the PCT going forward.