Abstract
BACKGROUND: There is growing recognition of the importance of including those with lived experience in health and healthcare research. Communities of practice and living labs are two increasingly common approaches being used for the involvement of lived experience experts. OBJECTIVE: To examine and compare the key characteristics of communities of practice and living labs in health and healthcare research that include people with lived experience. METHODS: A scoping review was conducted, and MEDLINE, SCOPUS and CINAHL were searched for relevant literature. One reviewer undertook title and abstract screening, two carried out full-text screening, and one conducted data extraction, with 10% of the data extracted by a second reviewer. RESULTS: Of the 63 included studies, 19 were focused on communities of practice and 44 on living labs. Communities of practice were mainly used for knowledge exchange, to support people living with conditions or to improve health literacy, services and policies. Living labs were mainly used for co-design and testing of products and services, and for collaboration between academia, health services and those with lived experience. CONCLUSION: Both approaches are used for effective inclusion of people with lived experience and can be flexibly applied depending on the desired outcome. CoPs are typically used for creating and sharing knowledge, and living labs are used for developing technology and for large-scale research networks. PATIENT OR PUBLIC CONTRIBUTION: Patients and members of the public were not involved in conducting this review. The broader project that this review was conducted within has a Public Advisory Committee, which includes one person living with dementia and three former carers of people living with dementia. They have provided guidance on our project as a whole. This review was conducted to inform another part of the broader project and is focused on studies that involved people with lived experience.