Partnering with parents to advance child health research.

Although patient engagement in research is widely touted as an important foundation for improving the relevance and sustainability of research findings, there is little consensus on how to do it in practice. This article describes our research team's experiences working with and engaging parents throughout the entire research process to reach full partnership in the identification, management, and dissemination of research. Our report of these experiences includes lessons learned along the way regarding how healthcare and research organizations can better support researchers and patients to achieve successful partnerships.