Zooming towards Rapid Qualitative Research for Implementation Science

Qualitative research serves a critical role in improving our understanding and delivery of healthcare. However, there are multiple barriers to the efficient practice of qualitative research, including conducting interviews. Advances in language processing technology, coupled with technocultural shifts spurred by the COVID pandemic, present opportunities to overcome many of these barriers. In mid-2021, we assessed the acceptability and application of implementation outcomes to the process of designing and implementing cancer clinical trials as perceived by physician stakeholders using semi-structured interviews. We were able to expand our interviews as we found remote interviews with automated rapid transcription provided by Zoom^™ through the Otter.ai platform to be efficient, highly accurate, and inexpensive. Thus, we were able to engage stakeholders from multiple specialties and perspectives. All interviews were conducted by a single interviewer via Zoom between July and September 2021. We found numerous benefits to video conference interviews with AI transcription, including addressing logistical barriers, improving on audio-only remote options, and cost and efficiency of transcription. Technological advances could improve the pace and cost-efficiency of general qualitative research that may be particularly valuable to implementation science and practice.