A special issue of The BMJ, led by patients

In June 2003, The BMJ published the first patient theme issue in its 160 year history.1 The issue covered many topics still relevant today, exploring the challenges of patient partnership in healthcare,2 the need to see patients as experts in their own right,34 and patients’ access to their own health information, including letters between health professionals.5 That issue included—and featured on the cover—an interview with Christopher Reeve, who played the title character in a series of Superman movies in the 1970s and ’80s, and was later paralysed from the shoulders as a result of a horse riding injury.6

Just over 10 years later, in 2014, The BMJ launched a patient partnership strategy that committed to partnering with patients and the public across all elements of the journal’s work.7 The aim of the strategy was to lead and support efforts to improve healthcare through realising the potential of working in partnership with patients and the public (families, community groups, advocacy groups, and organisations). Our commitment was to go beyond one-off gestures and to embed patients and the public as partners in our editorial processes.

The progress made since then would not have been possible without the support and guidance of our international panel of patient and public advisers, with whom we continue to share lessons from a decade of challenges and successes.89The BMJ has three patient editors, who work across the journal in partnership with other editors. Notable successes include a 20 year history of publishing patient authored content, starting with the “patient journeys” series in 2004,1011 and a steady increase in the number of published articles with a patient co-author. We publish 12 “what your patient is thinking” pieces every year,12 and patients regularly contribute perspectives across our Opinion content. We also involve patients and the public in peer review, and work with our patient panel to identify the topics and issues that matter most to patients.13 One of the biggest challenges we currently face, however, is trying to increase the diversity of patients and people with lived experience who get involved in patient partnership activities across the journal.