Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
8.6
Expert Knowledge in Medicine: A Case of Systemic
Knowledge
In light of what has been described, this study proposes that Medicine constitutes
expert knowledge.
1
It is emerging systemic knowledge in which different compo-
nents of the discipline, with different levels of uncertainty associated to them, help
to resolve the problem of how to construct valid knowledge to define disease and
propose solutions in the areas of treatment and prevention. This study proposes the
systemic model of building valid knowledge as a basis to justify that Medicine is
expert knowledge which must consider different cognitive components in its con-
struction. Some components come from the basic knowledge of science that it incor-
porates (Microbiology, Biochemistry, Biology, Genetics, etc.) and therefore share
the characteristics of inter-subjective validation of these basic sciences. At the same
time this basic knowledge interacts with cognitive components (experience, percep-
tion) whose validity is not established inter-subjectively. In consequence, the ex-
pert knowledge of medicine, in epistemological terms, is multiple and incorporates
aspects that cannot be precisely measured.
More important than considerations on how scientific Medicine is, this study de-
fends that different sources of (objective and subjective) information are necessary
and important for the construction of expert knowledge. Consequently, Medicine is
considered to be expert knowledge linked to the ability to construct systemic knowl-
edge that emerges from the interaction between different types of information used
by experts in their professional work. The occupation of experts is characterised
by the development of heuristic abilities that will guide how they investigate and
construct knowledge. According to the basic principles of the systemic model, this
expert knowledge does not arise from an accumulation of objective information that
is managed by each expert: it is the ability to self-organise the (subjective and ob-
jective) information that is considered in each case, along with the ability to assign
meaning to the information, that guides the expert in his process of investigation and
development of knowledge. Consequently, this field of knowledge is not free of sub-
jectivity or uncertainty, although there are inter-subjective confirmation processes to
the degree in which the validity of certain knowledge and practices is recognised by
the medical community (represented institutionally by the WHO).
On the other hand, the systemic model allows the study of disease to be ap-
proached holistically. The WHO incorporates biological, psychological and social
aspects in its definition of disease/health because it considers that, in addition to
the aetiology of a disease, social and environmental factors that affect sick people
should also be taken into consideration when investigating a disease. In this sense,
1
In this text we will use the Systems Theory concept of “emergence”. This idea supposes
that interaction between components of a system causes new properties to appear in the
system that do not belong to any of its components. Therefore, if the relations between the
components are eliminated the emergent properties will disappear. In this work knowledge
in Medicine is considered to need different components, all of which interact to create an
“emergent expert knowledge in Medicine”. Vid. [3].
