The BMJ: What Your Patient Is Thinking series

Summary

What Your Patient Is Thinking (WYPIT) is a BMJ series led and edited by patients and carers.

The articles are written by patients and carers and are a key part of The BMJ’s campaign to increase partnership with patients and public in healthcare. They contain messages that are thought provoking, and challenging for clinical readers of The BMJ, who mainly consist of doctors from across the world.

Articles can be about any aspect of patient or carer experiences. This might include what it is like for you to live with your condition or as a carer or your experience of an appointment or procedure. This might be in relation to a single healthcare appointment to those from a lifetime of managing a long term health condition. It is important for the piece to include lessons for doctors. They can focus on a particular aspect of care or treatment, offer a new angle on a familiar situation, or ask controversial questions from the patient or carer's perspective. They can be triggered by good or bad experiences but all of them should give healthcare professionals and, or policy makers practical things that they can do differently tomorrow as a result of reading the article.

The BMJ patient and clinical editors will work with you to develop your piece and to suggest specific questions to prompt reflection and action from the readership, that follow from the key points of your article.

Guidance if you would like to contribute to the "What Your Patient is Thinking" series.