Conducting Health Research in Interdisciplinary Settings: Pathways, Pitfalls, and Pearls of Wisdom

Workshop content: This workshop will offer information and guidelines for conducting health research in interdisciplinary settings. We begin by defining and differentiating multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary team models and outlining the goal of transdisciplinarity, in which multiple disciplines operate on a level playing field. We offer examples to illustrate and distinguish each of these three models. This portion of the workshop will highlight research findings and the research process, based on three studies that use interdisciplinary research team models (Gehlert, Parry, Reynolds). One such example is an NIH-funded social network analysis of eight interdisciplinary cancer research teams that include social work researchers. Another example is an NIH- and NSF-funded project to develop an instrument to measure parents' perceptions of the voluntariness of their decisions to enroll a child in a protocol-based treatment. A final example is of a John A. Hartford and Robert Wood Johnson Foundation-funded translational research and dissemination initiative to improve chronic illness care using an interdisciplinary team model. The discussion will then move into a second segment, exploring the professional implications, barriers and opportunities inherent in working in multi and interdisciplinary settings as a social work researcher. Topics to be discussed in this section include: What are the research implications of working in an arena with different and sometimes conflicting paradigms and professional assumptions? For instance, differences in professional core values across and between disciplines of medicine, nursing, psychology, genetics, and public health often shape assumptions about measurement, translation, and methodology. We will offer examples and discuss the unique role that social work has carved out in terms of contributions made in outcomes research, epidemiology, understanding genetic-environment interactions. In addition, we will discuss the potential for social work researchers to contribute to theory development. In a third section of the workshop, panel members will discuss their own professional opportunities and challenges of conducting health research in biomedical/health settings. Topics will include personal/ethical and professional challenges, as well as challenges in dealing with organizational/administrative structures, and funding. Panelists will offer concrete suggestions for addressing those challenges, based on their own work. Specifically, this section will cover topics such as navigating and adjusting to academic settings dominated by a biomedical framework, the implications of conducting research with individuals from other disciplines, and how to thrive in complex settings. Panelists who have worked in settings not considered conventional for social workers (medical schools: Zebrack, Parry; and Federal agencies: Rohan) will describe their career pathways, challenges and opportunities as models for social work researchers operating in settings in which values and decision-making processes may differ substantially from social work. Workshop format: The workshop will include three primary formats: didactic presentation of descriptive material and research; group discussion and experiential learning exercises based on case studies and examples; and panelist discussion and Q&A of possible career trajectories for social work researchers conducting health research in interdisciplinary settings. The workshop will provide participants with a ‘toolkit' of materials and strategies to better understand and effectively navigate, succeed on, and lead interdisciplinary health research.