Mixed Methods for Research on Support Networks of People Experiencing Chronic Illness and Social Marginalization.

Substantial research has focused on how social networks help individuals navigate the illness experience. Sociologists have begun to theorize beyond the binary of strong and weak social network ties (e.g., compartmental, elastic, and disposable ties), citing the social, economic, and health conditions that shape their formation. However, limited research has employed mixed social network methods, which we argue is especially critical for examining the "non-traditional" social support networks of marginalized individuals. We employ quantitative social network methods (i.e., the egocentric network approach) in addition to in-depth interviews and observations, with a novel tool for capturing network data about social groups, to surface these kinds of supportive relationships. Using the case of "nameless ties"-non-kin, non-provider ties who were unidentifiable by given name or were grouped by context or activity rather than individually distinguished-we show how mixed social network methods can illuminate supporters who are commonly overlooked when only using traditional social network analysis. We conclude with a proposal for mixed methods and group alter approaches to successfully observe liminal support ties that is ideal for research about individuals experiencing chronic disability, poverty, housing insecurity, and other forms of social marginalization.

Conflating race and ancestry: Tracing decision points about population descriptors over the precision medicine research life course.

Responding to calls for human genomics to shift away from the use of race, genomic investigators are coalescing around the possibility of using genetic ancestry. This shift has renewed questions about the use of social and genetic concepts of difference in precision medicine research (PMR). Drawing from qualitative data on five PMR projects, we illustrate negotiations within and between research teams as genomic investigators deliberate on the relevance of race and genetic ancestry for different analyses and contexts. We highlight how concepts of both social and genetic difference are embedded within and travel through research practices, and identify multiple points across the research life course at which conceptual slippage and conflation between race and genetic ancestry occur. We argue that moving beyond race will require PMR investigators to confront the entrenched ways in which race is built into research practices and biomedical infrastructures.

Patient and physician perspectives on treatments for low-risk prostate cancer: a qualitative study.

BACKGROUND: Patients diagnosed with low-risk prostate cancer (PCa) are confronted with a difficult decision regarding whether to undergo definitive treatment or to pursue an active surveillance protocol. This is potentially further complicated by the possibility that patients and physicians may place different value on factors that influence this decision. We conducted a qualitative investigation to better understand patient and physician perceptions of factors influencing treatment decisions for low-risk PCa. METHODS: Semi-structured interviews were conducted among 43 racially and ethnically diverse patients diagnosed with low-risk PCa, who were identified through a population-based cancer registry, and 15 physicians who were selected to represent a variety of practice settings in the Greater San Francisco Bay Area. RESULTS: Patients and physicians both described several key individual (e.g., clinical) and interpersonal (e.g., healthcare communications) factors as important for treatment decision-making. Overall, physicians' perceptions largely mirrored patients' perceptions. First, we observed differences in treatment preferences by age and stage of life. At older ages, there was a preference for less invasive options. However, at younger ages, we found varying opinions among both patients and physicians. Second, patients and physicians both described concerns about side effects including physical functioning and non-physical considerations. Third, we observed differences in expectations and the level of difficulty for clinical conversations based on information needs and resources between patients and physicians. Finally, we discovered that patients and physicians perceived patients' prior knowledge and the support of family/friends as facilitators of clinical conversations. CONCLUSIONS: Our study suggests that the gap between patient and physician perceptions on the influence of clinical and communication factors on treatment decision-making is not large. The consensus we observed points to the importance of developing relevant clinical communication roadmaps as well as high quality and accessible patient education materials.

Interrogating the Value of Return of Results for Diverse Populations: Perspectives from Precision Medicine Researchers.

BACKGROUND: Over the last decade, the return of results (ROR) in precision medicine research (PMR) has become increasingly routine. Calls for individual rights to research results have extended the "duty to report" from clinically useful genetic information to traits and ancestry results. ROR has thus been reframed as inherently beneficial to research participants, without a needed focus on who benefits and how. This paper addresses this gap, particularly in the context of PMR aimed at increasing participant diversity, by providing investigator and researcher perspectives on and questions about the assumed value of ROR in PMR. METHODS: Semi-structured interviews with a purposive sample of investigators and researchers across federally funded PMR studies in three national consortia, as well as observations of study activities, focused on how PM researchers conceptualize diversity and implement inclusive practices across research stages, including navigating ROR. RESULTS: Interviewees (1) validated the value of ROR as a benefit of PMR, while others (2) questioned the benefit of clinically actionable results to individuals in the absence of sufficient resources for translating findings into health care for diverse and disadvantaged populations; (3) expressed uncertainties in applying the presumed value of ROR as a benefit for non-clinical results; and (4) and debated when the promise of the value of ROR may undermine trust in PMR, and divert efforts to return value beyond ROR. CONCLUSIONS: Conceptualizations of diversity and inclusion among PM researchers and investigators raise unique ethical questions where unexamined assumptions of the value of ROR inform study recruitment efforts to enroll minoritized and under-represented populations. A lack of consideration for resources and infrastructure necessary to translate ROR into actionable information may hinder trustworthy community-research relationships. Thus, we argue for a more intentional interrogation of ROR practices as an offer of benefit and for whom.

Using Photographs to Understand the Context of Health: A Novel Two-Step Systematic Process for Coding Visual Data.

In qualitative research, photographs and other visual data have been used with oral narratives in ethnography, interviews, and focus groups to convey and understand the perceptions, attitudes, and lived experiences of participants. Visual methodologies that incorporate photographic data include photo elicitation, which has varied approaches with the inclusion of photographs generated by researchers or participants, and Photovoice, which is a form of photo elicitation focused on participatory action research. Current literature provides insufficient guidance on a systematic coding process of visual data elements that could maximize capturing of visual data for qualitative analysis. We describe our rationale and process for developing a two-step systematic process for coding visual data, specifically photographs. The two-step systematic process for coding photographs involves coding the foreground (focal point) and then the background of the photograph, using separate codebooks. Application of this two-step coding approach resulted in surfacing additional rich data on the health-related contexts and environments in which participants lived. Incorporation of this methodology could enhance understanding of the context of health and generate ideas and new directions of inquiry.

Rethinking Benefit and Responsibility in the Context of Diversity: Perspectives from the Front Lines of Precision Medicine Research.

INTRODUCTION: Federal agencies have instituted guidelines to prioritize the enrollment and retention of diverse participants in precision medicine research (PMR). Prior studies examining participation of minoritized communities have shown that potential benefits represent a key determinant. Human subject research guidance, however, conceptualizes potential benefits narrowly, emphasizing generalized advances in medical knowledge. Further, few studies have provided qualitative data that critically examine how the concept of "benefit" is interpreted or challenged in the context of research practice. This paper examines the experiences of PMR investigators and frontline research staff to understand how standard approaches to benefit are received, contested, and negotiated "on the ground." METHODS: Findings are drawn from a qualitative project conducted across five US-based, federally funded PMR studies. Data collection included 125 in-depth interviews with a purposive sample of investigators, research staff, community advisory board members, and NIH program officers associated with these PMR studies. RESULTS: Researchers report that the standard approach to benefit - which relies on the premise of altruism and the promise of incrementally advancing scientific knowledge - is frequently contested. Researchers experience moral distress over the unmet clinical, psychosocial, and material needs within the communities they are engaging. Many believe the broader research enterprise has a responsibility to better address these needs. CONCLUSION: Researchers frequently take issue with and sometimes negotiate what is owed to participants and to their communities in exchange for the data they provide. These experiences of moral distress and these improvisations warrant systematic redress, not by individual researchers but by the broader research ethics infrastructure.

Community Engagement in Precision Medicine Research: Organizational Practices and Their Impacts for Equity.

BACKGROUND: In the wake of mandates for biomedical research to increase participation by members of historically underrepresented populations, community engagement (CE) has emerged as a key intervention to help achieve this goal. METHODS: Using interviews, observations, and document analysis, we examine how stakeholders in precision medicine research understand and seek to put into practice ideas about who to engage, how engagement should be conducted, and what engagement is for. RESULTS: We find that ad hoc, opportunistic, and instrumental approaches to CE exacted significant consequences for the time and resources devoted to engagement and the ultimate impacts it has on research. Critical differences emerged when engagement and research decisionmaking were integrated with each other versus occurring in parallel, separate parts of the study organization, and whether community members had the ability to determine which issues would be brought to them for consideration or to revise or even veto proposals made upstream based on criteria that mattered to them. CE was understood to have a range of purposes, from instrumentally facilitating recruitment and data collection, to advancing community priorities and concerns, to furthering long-term investments in relationships with and changes in communities. These choices about who to engage, what engagement activities to support, how to solicit and integrate community input into the workflow of the study, and what CE was for were often conditioned upon preexisting perceptions and upstream decisions about study goals, competing priorities, and resource availability. CONCLUSIONS: Upstream choices about CE and constraints of time and resources cascade into tradeoffs that often culminated in "pantomime community engagement." This approach can create downstream costs when engagement is experienced as improvised and sporadic. Transformations are needed for CE to be seen as a necessary scientific investment and part of the scientific process.

Factors that influence treatment decisions: A qualitative study of racially and ethnically diverse patients with low- and very-low risk prostate cancer.

BACKGROUND: Factors that influence prostate cancer treatment decisions are complex, multifaceted, and personal, and may vary by race/ethnicity. Although research has been published to quantify factors involved in decision-making, these studies have been limited to primarily white, and to a lesser extent, Black patients, and quantitative studies are limited for discerning the cultural and contextual processes that shape decision-making. METHODS: We conducted 43 semi-structured interviews with a racially and ethnically diverse sample of patients diagnosed with low- and very-low risk prostate cancer who had undergone treatment for their prostate cancer. Interviews were transcribed, independently coded, and analyzed to identify themes salient for decision-making, with attention to sociocultural differences. RESULTS: We found racial and ethnic differences in three areas. First, we found differences in how socialized masculinity influenced patient's feelings about different treatment options. Second, we found that for some men, religion and spirituality alleviated anxiety associated with the active surveillance protocol. Finally, for racially and ethnically minoritized patients, we found descriptions of how historic and social experiences within the healthcare system influenced decision-making. CONCLUSIONS: Our study adds to the current literature by expounding on racial and ethnic differences in the multidimensional, nuanced factors related to decision-making. Our findings suggest that factors associated with prostate cancer decision-making can manifest differently across racial and ethnic groups, and provide some guidance for future research.

Targeting Representation: Interpreting Calls for Diversity in Precision Medicine Research.

Scientists have identified a "diversity gap" in genetic samples and health data, which have been drawn predominantly from individuals of European ancestry, as posing an existential threat to the promise of precision medicine. Inadequate inclusion as articulated by scientists, policymakers, and ethicists has prompted large-scale initiatives aimed at recruiting populations historically underrepresented in biomedical research. Despite explicit calls to increase diversity, the meaning of diversity - which dimensions matter for what outcomes and why - remain strikingly imprecise. Drawing on our document review and qualitative data from observations and interviews of funders and research teams involved in five precision medicine research (PMR) projects, we note that calls for increasing diversity often focus on "representation" as the goal of recruitment. The language of representation is used flexibly to refer to two objectives: achieving sufficient genetic variation across populations and including historically disenfranchised groups in research. We argue that these dual understandings of representation are more than rhetorical slippage, but rather allow for the contemporary collection of samples and data from marginalized populations to stand in as correcting historical exclusion of social groups towards addressing health inequity. We trace the unresolved historical debates over how and to what extent researchers should procure diversity in PMR and how they contributed to ongoing uncertainty about what axes of diversity matter and why. We argue that ambiguity in the meaning of representation at the outset of a study contributes to a lack of clear conceptualization of diversity downstream throughout subsequent phases of the study.

Strategies of inclusion: The tradeoffs of pursuing "baked in" diversity through place-based recruitment.

US funding agencies have begun to institutionalize expectations that biomedical studies achieve defined thresholds for diversity among research participants, including in precision medicine research (PMR). In this paper, we examine how practices of recruitment have unfolded in the wake of these diversity mandates. We find that a very common approach to seeking diverse participants leverages understandings of spatial, geographic, and site diversity as proxies and access points for participant diversity. That is, PMR investigators recruit from a diverse sampling of geographic areas, neighborhoods, sites, and institutional settings as both opportunistic but also meaningful ways to "bake in" participant diversity. In this way, logics of geographic and institutional diversity shift the question from who to recruit, to where. However, despite seeing geographic and site diversity as social and scientific 'goods' in the abstract and as key to getting diverse participants, PMR teams told us that working with diverse sites was often difficult in practice due to constraints in funding, time, and personnel, and inadequate research infrastructures and capacity. Thus, the ways in which these geographic and institutional diversity strategies were implemented resulted ultimately in limiting the meaningful inclusion of populations and organizations that had not previously participated in biomedical research and reproduced the inclusion of institutions that are already represented. These prevailing assumptions about and practices of "baked-in" diversity in fact exacerbate and produce other forms of inequity, in research capacity and research representation. These findings underscore how structural inequities in research resources must be addressed for diversity to be achieved in both research sites and research participants.

Beyond inclusion: Enacting team equity in precision medicine research.

PURPOSE: To identify meanings of and challenges to enacting equitable diversification of genomics research, and specifically precision medicine research (PMR), teams. METHODS: We conducted in-depth interviews with 102 individuals involved in three U.S.-based precision medicine research consortia and conducted over 400 observation hours of their working group meetings, consortium-wide meetings, and conference presentations. We also reviewed published reports on genomic workforce diversity (WFD), particularly those relevant to the PMR community. RESULTS: Our study finds that many PMR teams encounter challenges as they strive to achieve equitable diversification on scientific teams. Interviewees articulated that underrepresented team members were often hired to increase the study's capacity to recruit diverse research participants, but are limited to on-the-ground staff positions with little influence over study design. We find existing hierarchies and power structures in the academic research ecosystem compound challenges for equitable diversification. CONCLUSION: Our results suggest that meaningful diversification of PMR teams will only be possible when team equity is prioritized as a core value in academic research communities.

"Housing Is Health Care": Treating Homelessness in Safety-net Hospitals.

As medicine integrates social and structural determinants into health care, some health workers redefine housing as medical treatment. This article discusses how health workers in two U.S. urban safety-net hospitals worked with patients without stable housing. We observed ethnographically how health workers helped patients seek housing in a sharply stratified housing economy. Analyzing in-depth interviews and observations, we show how health workers: (1) understood housing as health care and navigated limits of individual care in a structurally produced housing crisis; and (2) developed and enacted practices of biomedical and sociopolitical stabilization, including eligibilizing and data-tracking work. We discuss how health workers bridged individually focused techniques of clinical care with structural critiques of stratified housing economies despite contradictions in this approach. Finally, we analyze the implications of providers' extension of medical stabilization into social, economic, and political realms, even as they remained caught in the structural dynamics they sought to address.

Social Literacy: Nurses' Contribution Toward the Co-Production of Self-Management.

We share findings from a larger ethnographic study of two urban complex care management programs in the Western United States. The data presented stem from in-depth interviews conducted with 17 complex care management RNs and participant observations of home visits. We advance the concept of social literacy as a nursing attribute that comprises an RN's recognition and responses to the varied types of hinderances to self-management with which patients must contend in their lived environment. It is through social literacy that complex care management RNs reconceptualize and understand health literacy to be a product born out of the social circumstances in which patients live and the stratified nature of the health care systems that provide them care. Social literacy provides a broader framework for health literacy-one that is situated within the patient's social context through which complex care management RNs must navigate for self-management goals to be achieved.

Patient Engagement, Chronic Illness, and the Subject of Health Care Reform.

In the United States, in the wake of health care reform, health care systems have been subject to intensifying demands to increase patient engagement, a term that refers broadly to participation in care. We draw from ethnographic research in urban health care safety-net settings in California to examine efforts to increase patient engagement among chronically ill, marginalized patients who have long been disconnected from outpatient care. We suggest that the work of engagement in this context involved getting people to accept the norms of biomedicine while also reworking these norms to account for the complex circumstances of their lives.

Managing the "hot spots": Health care, policing, and the governance of poverty in the US.

Health care systems in the United States are experimenting with a form of surveillance and intervention known as "hot spotting," which targets high-cost patients-the so-called "super-utilizers" of emergency departments-with intensive health and social services. Through a calculative deployment of resources to the costliest patients, health care hot spotting promises to simultaneously improve population health and decrease financial expenditures on health care for impoverished people. Through an ethnographic investigation of hot spotting's modes of distribution and its workings in the lives of patients and providers, we find that it targets the same individuals and neighborhoods as the police, who maintain longer-standing practices of hot spotting in zones of racialized urban poverty. This has led to a convergence of caring and punitive strategies of governance. The boundaries between them are shifting as a financialized logic of governance has come to dominate both health and criminal justice. [health care, chronic illness, governance, policing, poverty, United States].

Ethnographic investigation of patient-provider communication among African American men newly diagnosed with prostate cancer: a study protocol.

INTRODUCTION: In the USA, African American men bear a disproportionate burden of prostate cancer (PCa) compared with all other groups, having a higher incidence and mortality, poorer quality of life and higher dissatisfaction with care. They are also less likely to receive guideline-concordant treatment (eg, undertreatment of aggressive disease). Inadequate patient-provider communication contributes to suboptimal care, which can be exacerbated by patients' limited health literacy, providers' lack of communication skills and time constraints in low-resource, safety net settings. This study is designed to examine the communication experiences of African American patients with PCa as they undertake treatment decision-making. METHODS AND ANALYSIS: Using an ethnographic approach, we will follow 25 African American men newly diagnosed with PCa at two public hospitals, from diagnosis through treatment decision. Data sources include: (1) audio-recorded clinic observations during urology, radiation oncology, medical oncology and primary care visits, (2) field notes from clinic observations, (3) patient surveys after clinic visits, (4) two in-depth patient interviews, (5) a provider survey, and (6) in-depth interviews with providers. We will explore patients' understanding of their diagnoses and treatment options, sources of support in decision-making, patient-provider communication and treatment decision-making processes. Audio-recorded observations and interviews will be transcribed verbatim. An iterative process of coding and team discussions will be used to thematically analyse patients' experiences and providers' perspectives, and to refine codes and identify key themes. Descriptive statistics will summarise survey data. ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION: To our knowledge, this is the first study to examine in-depth patient-provider communication among African American patients with PCa. For a population as marginalised as African American men, an ethnographic approach allows for explication of complex sociocultural and contextual influences on healthcare processes and outcomes. Study findings will inform the development of interventions and initiatives that promote patient-centred communication, shared decision-making and guideline-concordant care. This study was approved by the University of California San Francisco and the Alameda Health System Institutional Review Boards.

Direct-to-consumer genomic testing: Are nurses prepared?

Genomic testing is increasingly common in the consumer marketplace. The role of nurses in educating and counseling patients requires them to be prepared to respond to questions about the results of direct-to-consumer genomic testing. This article describes one individual's reflections upon undergoing this testing, the challenges of interpreting the results, and nursing considerations for integrating these results into clinical practice.

Empowering Older Adults to Discuss Advance Care Planning During Clinical Visits: The PREPARE Randomized Trial.

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES: A patient-directed, online program (PREPARE for Your Care [PREPARE]; prepareforyourcare.org) has been shown to increase advance care planning (ACP) documentation. However, the mechanisms underlying PREPARE are unknown. Our objectives were to compare the efficacy of PREPARE plus an easy-to-read advance directive (AD) vs an AD alone to increase active patient participation in ACP discussions during clinic visits and to examine effects of active patient participation on ACP documentation. DESIGN: Audio recordings of postintervention primary care visits from two randomized trials (2013-2016). SETTING: Seven primary care clinics at a veterans affair and safety-net hospital in San Francisco, CA. PARTICIPANTS: English- and Spanish-speaking adults, aged 55 years and older, with two or more chronic/serious conditions. INTERVENTION: PREPARE plus an easy-to-read AD or an AD alone. MEASUREMENTS: The primary outcome was the number of active patient participation utterances about ACP (eg, asking questions, stating preferences) measured by the validated Active Patient Participation Coding Scheme. We examined differences in utterances by study arm using mixed effects negative binomial models and utterances as a mediator of PREPARE's effect on documentation using adjusted logistic regression. Models were adjusted for health literacy, prior care planning, and clinician. RESULTS: Among 393 participants, the mean (SD) age was 66 (8.1) years, 120 (30.5%) had limited health literacy, and 99 (25.2%) were Spanish speaking. PREPARE plus the AD resulted in 41% more active patient participation in ACP discussions compared with the AD alone (mean [SD] = 10.1 [16.8] vs 6.6 [13.4] utterances; incidence rate ratio = 1.41; 95% confidence interval = 1.00-1.98). For every additional utterance, participants had 15% higher odds of ACP documentation, and active patient participation accounted for 16% of PREPARE's effect on documentation. CONCLUSIONS: The PREPARE program and easy-to-read AD empowered patients to actively participate in ACP discussions during clinical visits more than the AD alone. Increased activation was associated with increased ACP documentation. Therefore, PREPARE may mitigate barriers to ACP among English- and Spanish-speaking older adults. TRIAL REGISTRATION: ClinicalTrials.gov identifiers: "Improving Advance Care Planning by Preparing Diverse Seniors for Decision Making (PREPARE)" NCT01990235 and "Preparing Spanish-Speaking Older Adults for Advance Care Planning and Medical Decision Making (PREPARE)" NCT02072941. J Am Geriatr Soc 68:1210-1217, 2020.

Hysteresis - or the mismatch of expectations and possibilities among relatives in a transforming health care system.

When a person experiences a severe stroke, their relatives must assume the role of partners in the rehabilitation process. Drawing on Bourdieu's field theory, we investigated the potential gap between the subjective expectations of relatives in terms of the assistance and care they can offer patients with severe brain injuries and the objective constraints of a healthcare field. Using data from observations, as well as interviews with relatives and official documents, our study shows how some relatives, reliant on their habitus, bring to their collaboration with healthcare professionals an expectation that the healthcare field will be able to take care of their multiple individual needs. However, due to hysteresis - a gap between their dispositions and the objective possibilities of the transformed healthcare field - these relatives are not equipped to recognise, grasp and occupy their new field position. We conclude that Bourdieu's theoretical concept of hysteresis may help to understand how changes in the healthcare field may lead to a mismatch between the field and the habitus manifested in interactions between patients, relatives and healthcare professionals, so that the ill-adjusted habitus of relatives leads to missed chances in relation to the opportunities objectively offered by the field.