DESIGN INTERVIEWS CONDUCTED BY INTRA- AND INTERCULTURAL TEAMS: A CASE STUDY ON DIALYSIS IN ZIMBABWE

In global development engineering, semi-structured, direct-dialogue interviews are often recommended in order to generate a deep understanding of stakeholders' needs and to create products that meet those needs. In this study, interviews were used to explore the existing dialysis treatment program for end-stage kidney disease in Zimbabwe. This study has two aims: (i) to understand the dialysis service model and limits to its expansion, and (ii) to examine the impact of the cultural background of the interviewing team on interview outcomes. Virtual training on exploratory interviewing was developed and administered to 12 undergraduate students living in the United States, Uganda, and Zimbabwe. Six teams, each having either an intercultural or intracultural composition conducted field interviews (n=18) with Zimbabwean dialysis professionals to better understand the existing service model associated with hemodialysis (HD) and peritoneal dialysis (PD) treatment modalities. Interviews were coded in NVivo to develop an overall service model map including relevant people, props, and processes. Key limitations to expanding PD programs include: lack of clean water sources, no in-country dialysate production, insufficient financial resources, limited nursing staff, and difficulty in tracking medical information during home-based treatment, among others. The service model map was additionally used to quantify the number of codes uncovered in individual interviews. Intercultural pairs produced a higher proportion of top scoring interviews than did the intracultural pairs. The small sample size, however, results in only an early indication of potentially replicable findings. The work represents a potential methodology for further research in this space.