Qualitative Research in Healthcare in the Age of Data Work.

The practice of medicine is increasingly characterized by forms of data production and management and is accompanied by the growing use of digital devices for data collection, storage and analysis. In a context in which the clinical encounter becomes one of many moments in the activity of health professionals, social research in the medical field is deprived of a privileged locus of observation. Called upon to observe the traces of work found in various technical systems that are usually inaccessible, often coded in an inaccessible language, researchers can only partially reconstruct an overall picture or access the minute details of medical practice that are essential for understanding it.

This presentation, drawing on an ongoing research, aims to reflect on an approach to the analysis of work in health care in which traditional qualitative research techniques are flanked by forms of collaborative research with doctors as a means of accessing otherwise inaccessible portions of their work experience.

The case consisted of research conducted on different networks of doctors using instant messaging systems (WhatsApp) to share information on clinical cases, discuss them and obtain suggestions from the peer group.

The research was conducted in three stages. By means of semi-structured interviews with the participants, the genesis of the network, the forms of exchange and the meaning it takes to support clinical practice were reconstructed. A brief ethnographic observation conducted during a workshop made it possible to see professionals, working in different structures, construct a shared sense of their sharing practice. The third moment is the analysis of the instant messaging chats conducted collaboratively with the healthcare practitioners.

The presentation will illustrate the results of the research and focus on the implications, complexities and opportunities offered by collaboration with doctors, from analysis to joint scientific production.