Secondary analysis of qualitative data

Secondary analysis involves the utilisation of existing data, collected for the purposes of a prior study, in order to pursue a research interest which is distinct from that of the original work; The approach has not been widely used in relation to qualitative data; Various methodological and ethical issues need to be considered and are more problematic if the secondary analyst was not part of the original research team; Further work to develop the approach is required in order to see if the potential benefits can actually be realised in practice.