The Patients Included conference charter provides conference organisers with a framework for putting patients and other healthcare consumers at the heart of their conference planning and delivery. It also helps them to demonstrate that their events are committed to incorporating the experience of patients as experts in living with their condition while ensuring they are neither excluded nor exploited. 
 
The five points of the charter relate to active participation of consumers in the design, planning and delivery of the event; funding and expenses; accommodating disability requirements; and facilitating virtual access where possible.
 
In 2018, our Colloquium adopted the Patients Included charter for the first time. We learned a great deal from this which will be useful as we prepare for Cochrane London 2023, which will also be a Patients Included event.