Day in the Life Patient Ethnography
Companies conduct a myriad of qualitative and quantitative studies on their customers, but these studies often do not convey an intimate and holistic sense of the customers’ “lived experiences.”
“Day in the life” patient ethnography differentiates itself from common market research methodologies by excelling in discovering and explaining the meaning in patients’ lives.
Day in the life patient ethnographies, for example, provide a firm sense of the rhythm and flow of customer’s everyday lives, while also digging deep to identify how patients’ diseases, and their approach to managing it, affects their daily lives.
Making the Implicit Explicit
Patients’ challenges, pain points, and needs—including ones that resist consciousness—surface more prominently in these in “day in the life” ethnographic market research studies.
Unlike with other market research methodologies, the ethnographer can observe patients as they are engaged in their relevant activities and then probe on these observed behaviors.
In these authentic setting situations, patients reflect on and explain their naturally occurring thoughts, including their implicit reasoning and decision-making process, as well as their frustrations, challenges, and motivations.
The depth and authenticity in ethnographic data collection helps to reveal patients’ master motivators and behavioral drivers, particularly when combined with the analytic acumen of a senior-level anthropologist.
Day in the life ethnographic research also produce deep insights on patients’ implicit conceptual models of health and disease, which structure their attitudes about and relationship with treatment.
Our doctoral training in psychological anthropology fine-tunes our ability to elicit and identify the structure of these share patient conceptual models.
Not Just Depth—Breadth
Beyond depth of insight on specific topics, day in the life patient ethnography is also topically expansive.
On our ethnographic market research studies, we tend collect substantial patient data and insights on these topics:
- Lifestyles
- Daily routines (weekday vs. weekend)
- Individuals and communities of influences
- Caregiver involvement and impact
- Social media engagement and influences
- Disease and treatment journey
- Current disease management and treatment practices
- Mindsets, motivations, emotions, and challenges
- Current support resources, influences, and needs (emotional, mental health, disease)
- Interactions and experiences with healthcare providers and stakeholders (insurance, pharmacists, manufacturer support programs, advocacy groups)
Our Tailored Approach
Our specific methodological approach to Day in the Life Patient Ethnography varies depending on the client’s scope of interest and budgetary limitations, but there are certain core methodological components that we maintain across these studies.
We do, for instance, have participating patients complete pre-interview self-documentation (journaling) and reflection exercises over a defined interval.
This not only allows participants to collect and document some longitudinal data on their lives, but it also them to organize and synthesize their thoughts—preparing them for a more productive ethnographic interview to follow.
We tend to involve digital ethnographic platforms, such as Sago’s QualBoard or Forsta’s digital diaries, for this early study phase.
A subsequent—the main—study phase involves in-home ethnographic research. These ethnographic research sessions tend to last 3-4 hours.
Depending on caregiver involvement, the interview may be broken into sections to allow interviewing of the patient alone, patient and caregiver together, and the caregiver alone.
While the discussion guides for these studies are loosely structure to enable exploratory strategic meandering during the interview, the guides are topically rich—reflecting the expansive study’s strategic scope.
Importance of Participant Observational Events
In line with the principles of ethnographic research (link), in-home patient ethnographic sessions are designed to have the patient engage in activities relevant to the study objectives (e.g., participant observational events).
Even though study participants feel more comfortable, and share more candidly, in their home setting with the ethnographer (vs. virtual interviews or facilities), it is important in ethnography to engage with the naturalistic settings and situations as stimuli during the ethnographic interview.
Among other things, this might involve interacting with healthcare providers (e.g., MyChart login and exchanges) or preparing and administering their medications.
The patients also provide the ethnographer with narrated tours, punctuated with abundant ethnographer questions, of the various spaces and objects in their home setting—explanations that provide fresh and meaningful insight on their lifestyles and identities.