The Rosamund Snow Prize: an opportunity for young health service users to attend the Cochrane Colloquium 2018

The Rosamund Snow Prize will enable two people aged under 30 with experience as health service users to join other healthcare consumers*, researchers and health professionals at Cochrane’s global conference (the Cochrane Colloquium), which takes place on 16th – 18th September 2018 in Edinburgh.

This event has taken place, and this page has been retained for historical interest. 

Rosamund Snow

Rosamund Snow

Rosamund Snow (1971-2017) will be remembered by many for her work to champion patients’ involvement in healthcare. Diagnosed with type 1 diabetes in her teens, Rosamund was later asked to help a consultant at her outpatient clinic investigate its high ‘did not attend’ rate; she explains what she found in this talk, addressing a TED×NHS event in 2016. Urging her audience to involve patients in service quality improvement, Rosamund said: “All you have to do is ask us. And we can turn your bag full of question marks into a lightbulb moment.”

Three years earlier, Rosamund gained a PhD, exploring ‘The role of patient expertise inside and outside the health system: patient education in diabetes’. At the time of her death, Rosamund’s work included helping to develop patient involvement in curriculum design and teaching communication skills to medical students in Oxford, and championing the increased involvement of patients at the BMJ, where she was Patient Editor.

The Rosamund Snow Prize

Rosamund’s mother, Mary Snow, has established a prize in Rosamund’s name to enable two people aged under 30, with experience as health service users and an interest in evidence-based medical research, to attend the Cochrane Colloquium 2018.

Rosamund was one of the first people we consulted about the possibility of involving patients and other healthcare consumers extensively in this conference, and suggested that we could work to make it a Patients Included event.

What is Cochrane?

Cochrane is a global independent network of researchers, professionals, patients, carers and people interested in health. We are a not-for-profit organization with contributors from more than 130 countries working together to produce credible, accessible health information that is free from commercial sponsorship and other conflicts of interest.  We do this by producing reviews that summarize the best available evidence generated through research to inform decisions about health.

The Cochrane Colloquium 2018 – ‘Cochrane For All’

The Cochrane Colloquium is Cochrane’s annual conference. This year it is being hosted by Cochrane UK, and the theme is ‘Cochrane for all – better evidence for better health decisions’.  As a #PatientsIncluded event, it is being co-designed, co-produced and co-presented by healthcare consumers, where everyone’s input is valued equally.  You can read more about it here: https://colloquium.cochrane.org 

Prize details

The successful applicants will get free registration for the three days of the conference, including lunches and attendance at the Welcome Reception and Gala Dinner, three nights accommodation and up to £200 for travel costs (reasonable costs, standard class travel).

It may be possible to bring the two people together ahead of the event, and we will at least put them in touch with one another. Attending a large conference can be daunting, but there will be plenty of support. A buddy system is in operation for newcomers and there will be opportunities to get together at the event.

We would like to invite the prize recipients to participate in the Colloquium, if they wish to, as Citizen Reporters. Tailored to the individuals’ skills and interests, this could involve them reporting in whatever formats appeal – social media, blogs, interviews, photos or film, drawings – or maybe something else! We will work with the successful candidates to find something that suits them.

Who can apply?

We asked that applicants must:

  • be aged under 30
  • be living in the UK or Ireland
  • have experience of health services as a patient or carer
  • have an interest in healthcare research (but not necessarily prior experience)

The prize recipients

Applicants were invited to complete a short survey by 20th June. We are delighted to announce the prize recipients here. 

Leave a comment on the blog, or talk to us on Twitter @CochraneUK #CochraneForAll #PatientsIncluded


*Cochrane uses the term ‘consumer’ to include patients (or people with personal experience of a health condition), health and social care service users, care-givers and family members who are involved with someone with a health condition, and people who represent (or advocate for) patients and carers. You might be interested in this Evidently Cochrane blog on the language used to talk about patients/consumers.



The Rosamund Snow Prize: an opportunity for young health service users to attend the Cochrane Colloquium 2018 by Sarah Chapman

is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International

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