Recycling the Evidence: Different Approaches to the Reanalysis of Gerontological Data

In 1991 Professor Margot JEFFERYS and two colleagues interviewed "pioneers of geriatric medicine" of whom 60 were geriatricians. These data are now on disk and can be searched digitally. The interviews were long and focussed on the careers of the doctors in terms of their personal successes and their ability to make the undervalued field of elder care into a respectable discipline in academic and practical medicine. The reanalysis of data for different purposes is an increasingly important methodological issue. This paper considers ethical and methodological issues raised by analysing data generated at another time and by another researcher. Two different approaches, reconstructive oral history and digitised analysis, are discussed with a view to understanding the contribution of overseas trained doctors to the development of the geriatric specialty, mid C20 geriatricians' career choice and experiences of cultural difference.