Knowledge mobilisation: an exploratory qualitative interview study to confirm and envision modification of lay and practitioner eczema mindlines to improve consultation experiences and self-management in primary care in the UK

OBJECTIVES: To investigate whether initial eczema mindlines, ‘collectively reinforced, internalised, tacit guidelines’, are an accurate representation of the experiences of lay people and practitioners in primary care and to explore how these mindlines may best be revised to improve eczema care. DESIGN: Exploratory qualitative interviews with constant comparative analysis and data mining. SETTING: UK, primary care. PARTICIPANTS: People with eczema or parents of children with eczema (n=19) and primary care practitioners (n=13). RESULTS: Interview data were analysed using constant comparison of new data with existing initial eczema mindlines to identify areas of agreement and disagreement. Data were mined for participant’s thoughts about whose mindlines should be modified, how this may be achieved and what core content is essential. Eczema mindlines and the spiral of knowledge creation, from which they evolved, intuitively made sense. Participants offered examples of how their eczema knowledge is continually produced and transformed as they interact with others. They reported diverse and wide-ranging influences on their thinking and recognised the critical relationship between lay and practitioner mindlines. For this reason they advocated modifying lay and practitioner mindlines in parallel. Participants advised amendment based on consistent information directed to all who influence eczema care. Information should come from trusted sources and be easy to access, distilled, practical, contextually relevant and amenable to assimilation. CONCLUSIONS: The purpose here is to improve primary care consultation experiences and self-management in eczema. The remaining challenge is to find novel, simple and pragmatic methods of modifying eczema mindlines to instil shared and consistent understanding. Given the prevalence of eczema and the scope of people who influence self-care, interventions should transcend patient-practitioner boundaries and address the wider community. One conceptually congruent approach is to create a Ba, which in this case would be a virtual space for generating and sharing eczema knowledge.