Rapid qualitative analysis for surgical research and evaluation

Surgical research has increasingly embraced qualitative approaches, but traditional qualitative methods can involve time-intensive data collection, interpretation, and analysis. Rapid qualitative analysis strategies have been developed as approaches that maintain the rigor of qualitative research under time or resource constraints. Although rapid qualitative analysis approaches have been more widely used in health services and implementation research, they have only recently begun to be used in surgical research. We introduce rapid qualitative analysis for surgical research and evaluation projects, including common features of the analytical approach and the types of qualitative studies that are most appropriate. Rapid qualitative analysis is a rigorous and pragmatic approach when used appropriately and may support the incorporation of qualitative components into more surgical research and evaluation projects.