Patient Review Panel volunteer

Turn your lived experience into something powerful as a Patient Review Panel volunteer.

What is the Patient Review Panel? 

The Patient Review Panel (PRP) is a group of volunteers with lived experience of macular disease who help us create clear, trustworthy, and useful patient information. 

As a PRP volunteer, you will review patient information before it is published and share your thoughts on whether it is easy to understand, helpful, and relevant to people living with macular disease. 

Your experience and perspective can help us make sure our information reflects what people really need to know, so that people with macular disease can make informed decisions about their care and lives. 

Your lived experience matters. By sharing it, you can help us Beat Macular Disease.

Why become a Patient Review Panel volunteer? 

As a PRP volunteer, you can help the Macular Society make patient information clearer, kinder, and more impactful for people like you. By sharing your perspective, you can help us ensure no one faces a macular condition alone. 

The Macular Society is the UK’s leading charity aiming to beat the fear and isolation of macular disease with world-class research, and the best advice and support.  

As a PRP volunteer, you can help us shape that advice and information. 

Do I need qualifications to volunteer?  

You don't need any specialist qualifications or experience to join the Patient Review Panel. All you need is: 

• lived experience of a macular condition 
• a passion for supporting other people with macular disease 
• an interest in helping us provide the best information about sight loss 

If you do, this could be the role for you! 

To ensure the PRP represents the UK’s diverse macular disease community, we particularly encourage people: 

• with diverse types of macular disease such as age-related macular degeneration, diabetic macular oedema, and macular dystrophies. 
• of different backgrounds and ages. 
• from other under-represented groups. 

How volunteers review patient information 

You may be asked to review information about macular disease, treatments, diagnosis, living with sight loss or other topics relevant to people affected by macular disease. 

When you are asked to perform a content review, we will send you a review guide and template to help you.  

Depending on what works best for you, we can send the content in three ways: 

• a Microsoft Word file by email. 
• an audio format by email. 
• a paper copy in the post. 

To submit feedback, you either email the completed review template to us or call our patient information manager. 

We consider all feedback carefully, but we may not be able to include every suggestion in the final content. The patient information manager will make the final decisions about what to include. 

Volunteer time commitments

PRP volunteers are asked to review around five to six pieces of content a year. Each review can take between 30 minutes and two hours, depending on the length and complexity of the content and how thoroughly you choose to review it. 

We ask you to complete each review within two weeks of receiving the content. If you need more time, please let us know and we will do our best to extend the deadline. 

Due to the nature and importance of this role, we ask for a minimum commitment of one year. 

Please note this is a volunteer role and is unpaid. 

How do I apply? 

To apply to become a PRP volunteer, you can use our online application form.