Chapter 7: Rapid Ethnographic Assessment in Clinical Settings

Implementing research into routine practice is a key focus in academic medicine. Many methods are being employed to address this gap. For decades, anthropologists in international development have used rapid ethnographic assessment (REA) to improve the fit of programs to local context. This too is one of the challenges academic medicine faces as it seeks to implement research into practice. We conducted REA to examine local clinical contexts and practices as a strategy to improve the fit and effectiveness of a smartphone application that supports prolonged exposure (PE), an evidence-based therapy for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Through REA, we were able to better understand clinician perspectives and integrate those perspectives into an educational mentoring program. In this chapter, we will discuss the application of REA in a clinical setting and its usefulness as a strategy to move research into practice more quickly.