Dyadic Interviews as a Tool for Qualitative Evaluation

Although evaluation researchers frequently make use of focus groups and individual interviews as sources of qualitative data, there has been far less attention to dyadic interviews that create a conversation between two research participants. This article describes dyadic interviews as a format that shares many of the advantages of focus groups, in terms of the interaction between the participants, at the same time that it minimizes problems related to bringing a number of participants together in the same place at the same. We illustrate the uses of dyadic interviews by describing the evaluation of a program where rural physicians were assisted in the adoption of electronic health records systems. We conclude by considering some of the possible future directions for developing dyadic interviews as a method in evaluation research.