A Critical History of Patient Engagement

Patient engagement has become “the right thing to do” and the only way to perform research. Yet, scholars have critically questioned the lack of clarity on what patient engagement is and its motivation, bringing attention to the complexities and tensions around patient engagement policies and highlighting that it has become an ideological good without considering the unintended consequences that might cause harm. With the aim of unpacking these critiques further and understanding how patient engagement has become an accepted norm in research, we conduct a historical exploration to offer insights and question the commonsense status that patient engagement has gained over the years.