BMJ  2005;330:631 (19 March), doi:10.1136/bmj.330.7492.631

Commentary

Using patients' narratives in complex research

¹ Department of Family and Community Medicine, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada M5T 1W7 Ross.Upshur@sw.ca

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

The use of narratives is attracting attention in health care as a means of exploring and sharing experiences of health, interactions with the health care system, and as a research method, in and of itself. How narratives function as part of a complex research programme is a less explored terrain. Greenhalgh and colleagues are to be commended for their innovative and novel approach to creating an intervention for diabetes education with the specific aim of engaging bilingual health advocates to facilitate narrative or story telling approaches as a part of a programme to improve diabetes management for a vulnerable and neglected population.¹

The study is itself part of a story. Like an early chapter in a book, what we see before us is only an indication of what is to come, and as with all good stories it clarifies some dimensions of the plot but leaves others untold. Greenhalgh and . . . [Full text of this article]

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Sharing stories: complex intervention for diabetes education in minority ethnic groups who do not speak English

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