ArticleQualitative health research2021
We Need to Talk About Complexity in Health Research: Findings From a Focused Ethnography.
Article in Qualitative health research, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 7 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
7 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Implementation of Web-Based Psychosocial Interventions for Adults With Acquired Brain Injury and Their Caregivers: Systematic Review.Journal of medical Internet research · 2022Pooled it
- Working With Value Complexity in Healthcare.Qualitative health research · 2026Article
- Mapping Characteristics, Applications, and Implementation Challenges of Virtual Communities in Cancer Care: NASSS Framework-Informed Scoping Review.Journal of medical Internet research · 2025Article
- Editorial: Qualitative research applied to public health: new topics and insight.Frontiers in public health · 2024Article
- Fluctuating power: an exploration of refugee health nursing within the resettlement context in Victoria, Australia.Journal of research in nursing : JRN · 2022Article
- Evolution and expansion of the One Health approach to promote sustainable and resilient health and well-being: A call to action.Frontiers in public health · 2022Article
- "Kicking and Screaming" or "Gracefully Conceding": Creative Nonfiction Stories of Aging With Multiple Sclerosis.Qualitative health research · 2021Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
Abstract
There is increasing focus on complexity-informed approaches across health disciplines. This attention takes several forms, but commonly involves framing research topics as "complex" to justify use of particular methods (e.g., qualitative). Little emphasis is placed on how divergent and convergent ways of knowing complexity become negotiated within academic communities. Drawing on findings from a focused ethnography of an international workshop, we illustrate how health researchers employ "boundary-ordering devices" to navigate different meanings ascribed to complexity while they attempt to sustain interdisciplinary communication and collaboration. These include (a) surfacing (but not resolving) tensions between philosophical grounding of knowledge claims and need for practical purchase, (b) employing techniques of representation and abstraction, and (c) drawing on the fluid, ongoing accomplishment of complexity for different audiences and purposes. Our findings have implications for progressing complexity-informed health research, particularly with respect to qualitative approaches.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.