She had an undergraduate degree in 1978 and, by 1981, was polishing off her doctorate. Patel has become adept at disentangling cobwebs. Her groundbreaking work analyzing medical decision-making has captured attention in fields outside of medicine. She has been conscripted by the World Bank to examine the process by which their economists made decisions on projects in developing countries. One of our critical findings was that the nature of training provided at the World Bank did not relate to what people did when they negotiated and solved conflicts in terms of cultural difference.
Cultures deal with economic issues differently.
The World Bank's economists were responding to what they understood to be happening, but not to what their clients in developing nations perceived. The work by Patel and her McGill team will be integrated into a new training program for World Bank staff that will be offered at the University of Pittsburgh. For instance, the Internet is becoming a hugely popular resource for patients doing research. Getting a better handle on these questions, says Patel, will help health care specialists develop appropriate computer-based information systems that will facilitate understanding.