TY - JOUR
T1 - Ethnography, Fidelity, and the Evidence that Anthropology Adds
T2 - Supplementing the Fidelity Process in a Clinical Trial of Supported Employment
AU - Smith-Morris, Carolyn
AU - Lopez, Gilberto
AU - Ottomanelli, Lisa
AU - Goetz, Lance
AU - Dixon-Lawson, Kimberly
N1 - Copyright:
Copyright 2014 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.
PY - 2014/6
Y1 - 2014/6
N2 - This discussion considers the role and findings of ethnographic research within a clinical trial of supported employment for veterans with spinal cord injury. Contributing to qualitative evaluation research and to debates over anthropological evidence vis-à-vis clinical trials, we demonstrate how enactors of a randomized controlled trial can simultaneously attend to both the trial's evidentiary and procedural requirements and to the lived experiences and needs of patients and clinicians. Three major findings are described: (1) contextual information essential to fidelity efforts within the trial; (2) the role of human interrelationships and idiosyncratic networks in the trial's success; and (3) a mapping of the power and authority structures relevant to the staff's ability to perform the protocol. We emphasize strengths of anthropological ethnography in clinical trials that include the provision of complementary, qualitative data, the capture of otherwise unmeasured parts of the trial, and the realization of important information for the translation of the clinical findings into new settings.
AB - This discussion considers the role and findings of ethnographic research within a clinical trial of supported employment for veterans with spinal cord injury. Contributing to qualitative evaluation research and to debates over anthropological evidence vis-à-vis clinical trials, we demonstrate how enactors of a randomized controlled trial can simultaneously attend to both the trial's evidentiary and procedural requirements and to the lived experiences and needs of patients and clinicians. Three major findings are described: (1) contextual information essential to fidelity efforts within the trial; (2) the role of human interrelationships and idiosyncratic networks in the trial's success; and (3) a mapping of the power and authority structures relevant to the staff's ability to perform the protocol. We emphasize strengths of anthropological ethnography in clinical trials that include the provision of complementary, qualitative data, the capture of otherwise unmeasured parts of the trial, and the realization of important information for the translation of the clinical findings into new settings.
KW - Ethnography
KW - Randomized controlled trial
KW - Spinal cord injury
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84901850140&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=84901850140&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1111/maq.12093
DO - 10.1111/maq.12093
M3 - Article
C2 - 24752942
AN - SCOPUS:84901850140
SN - 0745-5194
VL - 28
SP - 141
EP - 161
JO - Medical Anthropology Quarterly
JF - Medical Anthropology Quarterly
IS - 2
ER -