BRIDGE: Patient to Investigator Training
Welcome to the COPD Foundation’s BRIDGE Patient to Investigator Training webpage. The BRIDGE Patient to Investigator Training is meant to support people with COPD and caregivers who want to work with researchers and become part of study teams. The COPD Foundation believes it is important to have people with COPD and caregivers become working members of study teams and offer their perspective and unique firsthand knowledge of their disease.
What does it mean to be part of a study team?
Being part of a study team means you work directly with researchers, join study team meetings, help design the study and support the study as it is taking place. Members of a research study team are often called "investigators" — hence the title to this training is BRIDGE Patient to Investigator Training. We hope this training will provide you with the confidence and information needed to become a patient investigator on a research team — if you are interested in doing so.
Who created the training?
The training was designed by staff of the COPD Foundation in collaboration with patient and caregiver partners, researchers, and other key stakeholders.
What is the training like and who can do the training?
The training is broken up into several training modules, at the end of this webpage, that can be done from the comfort of one’s home. The training is open to everyone to view, but if you want to ultimately become a "patient investigator" and part of the official COPD Foundation BRIDGE Research Partners Group and be offered opportunities to work on study teams, you will be asked to complete a registration form.
Once you complete the form, we will reach out to you and be available to help you as you go through the different training modules. If you are unsure if you want to complete this training, please feel free to view any of the different modules below before making a decision.
If you want to become part of the COPD Foundation BRIDGE Research Partners Group:
- Complete the registration form and pre-training survey by clicking on the registration link below
- Go through each of the trainings in order – please remember to complete the Module Confirmation Survey after each module, you will be asked to sign into your account each time to complete those surveys
- Complete the final review questions
- Complete the post training survey to confirm interest in joining the COPD Foundation BRIDGE Research Partners Group
- Email bridge@copdfoundation.org if you have any questions