# Incognito standardized patients for studying healthcare stigma: partial deception and other ethical challenges

## TL;DR

This paper explores the ethics of using hidden actors to study healthcare stigma and the challenges it raises.

## Contribution

The paper introduces a new method using incognito standardized patients to study enacted stigma in healthcare.

## Key findings

- The incognito method allows for observing real-time stigma in healthcare settings.
- The approach raises ethical concerns due to partial deception and potential harm.
- Balancing research benefits with ethical risks is a key challenge.

## Abstract

This paper examines the ethical considerations of using the incognito clinic visits by standardized patients (SP) in order to measure enacted stigma in healthcare settings. It reviews traditional SP methods, introduces the new method, and discusses its potential harms and benefits.