Data collection process in qualitative research: Challenges and potential solutions

Qualitative research in the field of public health and medical education has immense scope and potential considering the richness of information that it adds to the existing literature. We completely acknowledge the in-depth information and the variety of viewpoints that qualitative research methodologies add to the existing pool of information, but the process of data collection has many challenges, which need to be appropriately addressed to enhance the overall quality of data. These challenges include investigator‒participant rapport, participant attributes, researcher attributes, and administrative and logistics constraints. To summarize, the conclusion in qualitative research immensely depends on the process of data collection, and thus it is very much important that all specific steps are taken to overcome these challenges and thereby produce meaningful and evidence-based inferences.