Split-Session Focus Group Interviews in the Naturalistic Setting of Family Medicine Offices

I thought this was a useful approach to a perennial issue in focus groups: how to deal with heterogeneity. Of course, that problem is magnified when the difference between the categories of participants also involves hierarchy or power differentials.

In particular, I liked the idea of starting with a joint presentation followed by an alternation between the two "segments." I also appreciated the practicality of doing this in an office setting, where the office could retain much of its functioning by having portions of the staff available while the others were participating in a group. I could easily imagine this kind of alternation as a practical approach in a variety of organizational settings, regardless of whether heterogeneity was an issue.

Competing interests: None declared