Uncovering the wisdom hidden between the lines: the Collaborative Reflexive Deliberative Approach

Area of Science:

• Health Services Research
• Qualitative Research Synthesis
• Knowledge Translation

Background:

• Current meta-analysis and meta-synthesis methods primarily rely on published data.
• Existing approaches often overlook valuable tacit knowledge and unpublished findings from research projects.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a novel approach for expanding and deepening meta-syntheses.
• To integrate researchers' tacit knowledge and unpublished materials into synthesis methods.

Main Methods:

• Established collaborations among primary health care researchers with diverse perspectives.
• Utilized the Collaborative Reflexive Deliberative Approach (CRDA) over two years.
• Conducted face-to-face and virtual meetings to discuss published and unpublished research findings.

Main Results:

• The CRDA effectively uncovers critical insights and interpretations across multiple research contexts.
• Successful implementation requires diverse participants, effective collaboration, sufficient contextual variation, and balanced facilitation.
• The approach fosters the identification of new patterns and insights beyond main study objectives.

Conclusions:

• The Collaborative Reflexive Deliberative Approach (CRDA) enhances theory development and generates novel research questions.
• This method illuminates hidden information by leveraging interactions among diverse participants.
• CRDA requires significant investigator time, resources for retreats, coordination, and strong leadership.