Chi Phuong Le is a 2019 GHBN Bursary Fellow

Biosketch:

Chi Phuong Le has a Master's Degree in Public Health (2016) and has been working as a social research assistant in Oxford University Clinical Research Unit Vietnam (OUCRU) since December 2017. She started her job in OUCRU as the research assistant in a project on the Controlled Human Infection Model. The aim of this project was to explore initial perceptions and barriers to human challenge studies in Vietnam. She is also interested in improving gender equity and diversity in medical science, which is explored through her other study on female staff at OUCRU. 

Project Description: Stakeholder experiences and perspectives of integrating qualitative research into clinical settings in Ho Chi Minh City

The use of qualitative research in hospital settings is not novel and often contributes valuable information on the local context and on the social determinants relevant to the care seeking process, as well as making the voices of individual patients and healthcare staff heard. However, qualitative researchers often face hurdles during the review process including the emphasis of positivist assumptions on ethical application forms or a limited understanding of qualitative research by IRB/EC members, making the review of such studies more complex.

At OUCRU Vietnam, clinical trials and studies are now beginning to integrate more qualitative research within or alongside clinical protocols. In order to have a better mutual understanding and make the ethical review process more applicable to qualitative research, we realized that there is a need to document the experiences that IRB/EC members and researchers face when implementing studies within a clinical trial or hospital setting. Therefore, we will conduct this study to provide an insight into stakeholder experiences and perspectives of integrating qualitative research into clinical trials and studies within hospital settings in Ho Chi Minh City.