Increasing the Value of Health Intervention Trials: Qualitative Research in the Early Psychosis Intervention Network (EPINET)

Abstract

Despite the substantial capacity of qualitative and mixed methods research to advance healthcare and interventions knowledge, most large-scale health intervention trials exclusively use quantitative methods. The authors argue that qualitative research can optimize investments in these studies. As researchers within the Early Psychosis Intervention Network (EPINET), the authors highlight examples of how qualitative research has enhanced this national initiative, organizing them with a Learning Health System (LHS) framework to demonstrate the ways qualitative research can increase value at each phase of a health trial. They emphasize the critical need for integrating qualitative research from the beginning of health trials, ensuring its influence in decision-making, creating infrastructure to support it, and promoting meaningful representation within research teams. By illustrating the advantages of qualitative research in EPINET, they advocate for sustained commitment to qualitative research in health trials to maximize value in client and provider experience, cost, and population health.