About
Mirinda Tyo, PhD, is an Assistant Professor at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth and a board-certified trauma nurse, clinical educator, and nurse leader. She has over 20 years of clinical expertise caring for patients with chronic illness. Her program of research focuses on understanding the experiences of family members impacted by chronic illnesses and the factors that influence their health and wellbeing, such as caregiver burden, caregiver resilience, stress, and stigma. Family caregivers represent a large underserved population and her research goal is for healthcare providers and policy makers to better understand how to help family caregivers improve their resilience and quality of life, so they can continue with essential caregiving duties.
Dr. Tyo has expertise in perspective mapping, a novel mixed method, and psychometric methods. Perspective mapping blends qualitative research on participants’ lived experiences with measurable quantitative frameworks. It is an interviewing technique used to co-create a visual map of the lived experience of a phenomenon of interest (ex. experiences of Parkinson’s disease, Huntington’s disease, asthma). The technique generates quantitative information about the frequencies of symptoms, and qualitative information to help characterize the lived experience. The method has gained substantial attention in the field of neurology to address FDA requirements for patient experience data that can be used to support decision-making related to new digital technology and patient reported outcome (PRO) measures. Dr. Tyo has developed two instruments, Stigma in Substance Use Disorder Scale and the Psychometric Reliability & Investigation of Research Instruments rubric.
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Highlights - Output
Journal article
Perspective mapping: a tutorial for collecting quantifiable qualitative interview data
Published 05/16/2025
Journal of medical Internet research, 27
Mixed methods research is essential to development of patient reported outcome measures, digital technology, and endpoint selection for clinical drug trials, and to advance clinical care, when complex health-related experiences cannot be fully understood by quantitative or qualitative approaches alone. New technology and opportunities for remote data collection have changed the ways in which qualitative and quantitative data can be collected, enabling researchers to capture human experiences in ways not previously possible. This paper describes Perspective Mapping, a new online interviewing technique that uses mind mapping software to capture in-depth qualitative data inside a quantitative measurement framework to understand and measure individual experiences. The objective of this tutorial is to review the theoretical underpinnings, present instructions for study design and implementation, and address strengths, limitations, and potential applications of this technique in health and behavioral sciences. During online interviews, mind-mapping software is used to visually depict experiences. Structured concept maps are co-created in real time with participants, focusing on building detailed narrative descriptions about experiences and categorizing these within a predefined quantitative framework, such as the relative importance of different experiences relevant to a phenomenon. The approach combines semi-structured interviewing with technology enhanced card-sorting techniques, allowing participants to define and prioritize what matters most. The method ensures narrative richness alongside structured data collection, facilitating deeper understanding of phenomena. Perspective Mapping emphasizes participant engagement in data generation and analysis and enables the simultaneous collection of qualitative narratives and quantitative assessment of key concepts. The technique has been successfully applied in research on chronic illness, symptom burden, and digital health technology. Advantages of the approach include systematic collection of qualitative data, transparent and structured data outputs, real-time data validation, and ability to return maps to participants as a form of reciprocity. Feasibility factors such as interviewer capabilities, participant literacy, interview duration, and technology resources must be considered. Perspective Mapping offers an innovative and engaging way to gather complimentary qualitative and quantitative data remotely. By blending qualitative depth with quantitative structure, the technique supports richer, more actionable insights for health research, policy, and beyond. This technique holds promise for applications in health, psychology, education, and other social sciences where comprehensive understanding of experiences is essential.