I certainly got the impression that they don't see patients as people who understand research. Although I did start a question by pointing out to them that it took a patient to tear holes in their analysis and they resisted doing anything about that for many years.
I also got the impression that if a patient also was a medical person that may be ok. After there talk I was talking to Richard along with Nina (who is a doctor and had given her education talk earlier) so Richard gravitated to asking her if she would be involved.