Qualitative Methods in the Study of Health, Disease and Medical Systems

This course combines informal lecture and discussion with practical exercises to build specific skills for conducting qualitative research on healthcare, broadly defined. Readings include books and papers about research methodology and articles that provide exemplars and pitfalls of qualitative research. Specific topics covered include: the role of theory in qualitative research, method-research question fit, collecting different types of qualitative data (observation, interview, focus group, text, video), ethical issues in qualitative research, establishing rigor in qualitative research, introduction to qualitative data analysis using software, mixing methods, approaches for obtaining grant funding for qualitative research and writing up qualitative research studies for publication.