Some people find it hard to believe that qualitative research is a relatively recent invention. Given how ubiquitous it is in healthcare research today, it's hard to imagine that it only really came into existence in the 1980s. Prior to that, most research that was broadly humanistic came under the umbrella of sociology or philosophy. But these approaches tended to be either densely theoretical or quantitative, as in the case of classical sociology. The domain that came to be known as qualitative research emerged largely from critical theory and came into existence as an attempt to codify a set of methodological approaches that could capture the kinds of phenomena that gave it a rapid and … [Read more...] about Going beyond qualitative research
Leaving (physiotherapy) home
I had a lovely conversation with some colleagues from Tromsø University's School of Physiotherapy on Monday night after my keynote to the Norwegian Physiotherapists' Congress. Having talked about 'The End of Physiotherapy', they asked me a question I seem to be getting asked a lot now. "So" they said, "what's the answer ... what's the future for physiotherapy?" Now it's an absolutely foundational principle for me that it's not my place to tell people 'the answer' (as if there could ever be an answer). And that's partly because I subscribe to a Foucauldian approach to critical thinking that says you don't replace one bad hegemony (or dominant way of viewing the world) with another. But … [Read more...] about Leaving (physiotherapy) home
A recipe for bad qualitative research
I often think that I was very lucky to have been given a classical physiotherapy training – with its focus on anatomy and physiology, biomechanics and kinesiology, objective testing and quantitative research. But this was enriched no end by being introduced to qualitative research early in the 1990s when it was really taking off in healthcare. Since then I've probably reviewed more than a hundred qualitative research articles and read thousands more. And in all that time I still come back to one simple test of whether qualitative research is any good or not. Whenever I review qualitative research article I ask myself is the study is telling me anything I don't know already. … [Read more...] about A recipe for bad qualitative research
Beyond Motherhood and Apple Pie
This second blogpost from Dina Brooks extends her argument about the role of the CPN in reaching out to the wider physiotherapy community. In my last blog, Reflections of a quantitative researcher on the CPN Salon, I suggested that we needed to build bridges not walls and encouraged CPN to have more connections with the biomedical quantitative physiotherapy world. Although there was general buy-in to the idea, I was vague in my last blog and wanted to follow up by getting more specific and expanding on the why and how I see this connection happening. Specifically, I wanted to address the risks to the CPN, reasons why the CPN is best positioned to reach across the divide and make … [Read more...] about Beyond Motherhood and Apple Pie
Reflections of a quantitative researcher on the CPN Salon
This is another post in our series of new bloggers on the criticalphysio site. This post comes from Professor Dina Brooks, Canada Research Chair in Rehabilitation in Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease at the University of Toronto in Canada. Let me start with two confessions: 1) this is my first blog ever; and 2) I am a quantitative researcher who has done basic and applied research and conducted multiple randomized controlled trials. With any luck, these disclosures will not turn you off reading this blog but intrigue you to know why I feel compelled to write my first blog ever, for the CPN. The day after WCPT Congress, I attended the CPN Salon in a beautiful venue in Cape … [Read more...] about Reflections of a quantitative researcher on the CPN Salon
More on the measurement of pain
Neil Maltby's excellent blogpost yesterday (Algorithm is going to get you) was a refreshing reminder of some of the odd things we do in the name of science-based physiotherapy. Neil's post was about how we look for pseudo-scientific measurement of things that otherwise can't (and shouldn't) be measured. I've blogged about this before (see here, for example), and complained bitterly about our lack of sophistication when it comes to subjective phenomena like breathlessness, pain, loss (of functional ability), etc., that are the bread-and-butter of everyday life for working physiotherapists. No-one ever wakes up in the morning with a bad headache and says "Wow, I've got a really bad … [Read more...] about More on the measurement of pain
I love superstitions – Oscar Wilde (and here's why)
“Bring something incomprehensible into the world!” ― Gilles Deleuze, Thousand Plateaus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia Founded in the 1880s by Manhattan rationalists, the 13 Club held a regular dinner on the 13th of each month, seating 13 members at each table deliberately to laugh at superstition. “I have given some attention to popular superstitions, and let me tell you that argument is powerless against them,” founding member Daniel Wolff told journalist Philip Hubert in 1890. “They have a grip upon the imagination that nothing but ridicule will lessen.” As an example he cited the tradition that the mirrors must be removed from a room in which a corpse is lying. “Make the experiment … [Read more...] about I love superstitions – Oscar Wilde (and here's why)