2025/07/03 by Britt Dahlberg, Kailyn E. Sitter, Emerson Woody +1 · 2 voices · 2 citations
Economics, Econometrics and Finance · Health Professions · #Healthcare Policy and Management #Primary Care and Health Outcomes #Public Health Policies and Education
paper · doi:10.1080/08884552.2025.2551582
openalex publication_date 2025/07/03 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/06/15
Anthropologists bring unique strengths to holistically addressing key issues facing healthcare, however we often navigate epistemological and practical divides in cross-disciplinary collaboration and institutional policy to do so. In research partnerships, our power lies in our ability to reframe the fundamentals of research which can include: rethinking the priority areas needing attention, expanding the perspectives included, and questioning accepted assumptions to make the research more reflective of lived experience. Yet, these reframings and practical divides can also cause friction in the research process. In this piece we highlight the importance of friction in creating generative work with health professionals in key ‘moments’ in the research process: 1. forming teams/the initial consult; 2. defining objects of study; 3. research design; 4. data collection; 5. data analysis; and 6. writing/creating together. By tracing the working relationships and research across these moments, we encourage intentionality and care in how team science with health professionals is crafted on a project-by-project basis, with attention to the kinds of knowledge and practices anthropologists and their cross-disciplinary collaborators together have the opportunity to create.