The launch event was held at City Hospital, Birmingham on 10th May 2011. It was attended by twelve people with arthritis, other chronic illnesses, support workers and researchers.
The launch event was started with introductions and a presentation given by Dr. Karim Raza on the importance of early intervention in RA and the rationale behind the DELAY study. This was followed by a presentation by Dr. Rebecca Stack on the aims of the DELAY project, and an overview of the stages of work to be undertaken as part of the DELAY study. Ms Sue Thomas and Mr Ian Rowan presented information on their role as representatives of the Service User panel. This was followed by a discussion about the different activities members of the Service User panel maybe interested in undertaken.
 
The second part of the launch event involved a round table discussion about the role and organisation of the Service User panel. The following discussion took place:
- A discussion about the name of the panel and the code of practice took place. The name “Service User Panel” was chosen and an agreed code of conduct was drafted. Copies of the code of conduct will be forwarded to each member of the group to sign and return to Rebecca.
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- A discussion of how tasks would be presented to Service Users took place. Rebecca and Karim explained that activities would be presented in a written format.
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- Karim and Rebecca explained that it was important that there was continual reflection on the way the Service User panel was working. They explained that involvement of Service Users was a relatively new venture in research studies and that we needed to constantly review how we could improve the experience for Users and think about how we could measure the User experience and the impact of User involvement on the study.
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- The mechanisms for payment were discussed.
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- It was decided that the group would meet annually at City Hospital to review the activities of the panel, and suggest new ways of working. Other meetings would be arranged as required and dependent upon the particular phase of the study.
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- Ways of communicating were discussed, as the majority of members have access to a mobile phone, it was suggested that updates and brief communications could be delivered by text message.
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Moving forward and ideas for the future
The specific ideas that emerged from the launch event included:
- Drop in clinics in community venues to raise awareness
- Trying to get issues adopted by the media e.g. for plots in TV dramas
- Trying to establish what the motivation was behind individual members of the panel volunteering their services – understanding this would help the project team understand how we could meet these needs
 
Feedback on the event
Feedback on the Service User event was extremely positive. Nine people rated the event as excellent and the other three people rated the event as very good.
Based on the feedback of Service Users who attended the event the team will develop strategies to ensure that the views of all group members are heard, and that less vocal members of the panel have greater opportunities to contribute towards discussions.
The positive points shared by Service Users about the event included:
“Very good to meet others.”
“Every aspect discussed was every clear.”
“Good information imparted, meeting other people and feeling involved.”
“Good moral support and becoming less anxious and able to ask questions."
"Gained deeper understanding of arthritis."
“Good to understand how arthritis affects others.”
“It made me even more sure that I have made the correct decision to be involved.”
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The Launch Event 
