Randomized controlled trials and surverys focus on limited data from many subjects. They provide a means for assessing effects of treatments with statistical precision, but they miss many of the personal, subjective qualities of the experience of receiving healing.

Qualitative studies focuses on the perceived experience of illness and its treatment. A small series of subjects is selected for in-depth interviews. The interview data are usually tape recorded and transcribed, and then analyzed in minute detail for themes that are common to the whole group or to subgroups of subjects. Clusters of themes are collected into categories and categories are distilled into one or a few overall themes that encapsulate the experience.

While this may seem a simple process, it is extremely demanding and time-consuming. Researchers unfamiliar with qualitative studies will do well to find a supervisor who is thoroughly familiar with this approach.

Helpful reference: Bowling, A, Measuring Disease: A Review of Disease-Specific Quality of Life Measuring Scales, Buckingham, UK: Open University Press 1996.