PMID: 11639797Aug 1, 1995Paper

Turning a practice into a science: reconceptualizing postwar medical practice

Social Studies of Science
M Berg

Abstract

In recent years, many editorials in leading North American medical journals have argued that medical practice is seriously flawed. Ofter, decision-support techniques are mentioned as a potential solution to this problem. I argue that these recent calls embody a specific reconceptualization of medical practice and its problems. Within the postwar medical literature, divergent discourses on the virtues and troubles of postwar medical practice can be found. Through a focus on medical editorials, I demonstrate the existence of several different notions of the 'scientific nature' of medical action. Comparing the more recent of these images to those dominating earlier medical journals, one main shift is apparent. While, earlier, medical action was often described as an artful application of scientific knowledge, only mildly tainted by external, social problems, recent conceptualizations often locate both the scientific nature of medicine and the causes of its problems in the physician's brain. Even within this new discourse, however, scientific rationality does not always speak with the same voice, as reflected in the existence of different decision-support techniques. I argue that these different techniques, which are presented as s...Continue Reading

Citations

Nov 17, 2001·Social Science & Medicine·M Nurok
Apr 1, 1997·Social Science & Medicine·M Berg
Oct 9, 2014·Advances in Surgery·Nicole T Townsend, Thomas N Robinson
Nov 20, 2014·Journal of Evaluation in Clinical Practice·Sandra J Tanenbaum
Dec 12, 2007·The Milbank Quarterly·George WeiszVirginie J Tournay
Mar 21, 2012·The Milbank Quarterly·Mark D Neuman, Charles L Bosk
Jan 3, 2006·Social Science & Medicine·Helen Lambert
Mar 15, 2015·Anthropology & Medicine·Mary Adams, Christopher McKevitt
Sep 10, 2015·Australian Journal of Primary Health·Géraldine Bloy, Laurent Rigal
Jan 10, 2018·Sociology of Health & Illness·Ariel Ducey, Shoghi Nikoo
Apr 10, 1999·Journal of Advanced Nursing·P CrawfordP Nolan
May 27, 2006·Culture, Medicine and Psychiatry·Aviad E Raz, Judith Fadlon
Jun 20, 2015·Medical History·Nicholas Whitfield, Thomas Schlich
Oct 24, 2012·New Biotechnology·Alison HarveyBarbara Prainsack

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