The Academic Pediatric Association’s (APA) Qualitative Research Special Interest Group (SIG) has had a productive year despite the confines of the coronavirus pandemic. Last year, Ashwini Lakshmanan, MD, MS, MPH joined our leadership with Drs. Tewksbury and Paul as a SIG co-chair, and we thank Dr. Kind for her SIG leadership since 2014 as she rotates off in the upcoming year. Dr. Lakshmanan is a neonatologist and health services researcher who has expertise in qualitative and mixed methods research.
In addition, our QR SIG had a planned joint session, “Advancing Women in Medicine: Role of Qualitative Research” with the Women in Medicine SIG at the Pediatric Association Societies’ (PAS) annual meeting in Philadelphia in May, 2020. At this session, we planned to foster networking between our SIGs, gain an understanding of how qualitative research get better inform the current research work on women in medicine and their career trajectories, and to initiate research collaborations. Unfortunately, due to the cancellation of the PAS meeting, we could not hold this session in-person.
Fortunately, with the support of the APA and the leadership of Dr. Berkowitz with the Women in Medicine SIG, we are moving forward with a virtual session, “Advancing the Health of Women Physicians through Qualitative Research” on August 18, 2020. At this session, we aim to explore a qualitative research study that focuses on the health of women physicians and to have a robust discussion regarding the importance of this topic and the use of qualitative methods to explore it. We also plan to join the Society for Pediatric Research (SPR) Diversity Taskforce for a webinar to review issues regarding women in medicine during the pandemic. Additionally, we welcome a joint session with any APA SIG to explore issues with a qualitative research lens.
