Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Modern medicine has in many ways widened the traditional notion of
diseases as being located
in
the body (Armstrong 2002). Today it is generally
acknowledged that diseases in many cases also include the patient's life and
lifestyle, and that the disease has consequences in the life of the patient in ways
that potentially affect the treatment. This means that medical professionals
have to talk about areas that are generally associated with the life world of
the patient; and in ways that give the medical professional the possibility to
both advise and negotiate these matters (see Sarangi
et al
. 2005).
In order to be able to advise patients, for instance about genetic
information, or to infl uence patients to change their lifestyle, it can be seen
as necessary not only to talk
to
the patients, but above all
with
the patients.
This would mean that the medical professional has to invite the patient into
the medical encounter and be able to respond to the patient in ways that
include the patient and his or her perspective in the conversation. Also,
in contemporary society, people have vast possibilities to access medical
information, for instance through the Internet, and will bring this kind of
information
to
the encounter with the doctor.
These changes make it important to examine the ways in which medical
technologies feature in clinical encounters. We could think of at least three
ways this can happen. First, in some cases the medical encounter becomes
directly mediated by technology in the sense that the medical professional uses
a technological device during the physical examination. This is the case for
example in the ultrasound examination or the PET scan. The technological
device becomes an integrated part of the ongoing clinical encounter and has
to be explained and reckoned with in many ways.
Second, medical technology can also produce results that are used in
the clinical encounter. Referring to lab reports in the clinical encounter
is not something new, but the extent and importance of these types of
results and reports have probably increased. It means that the doctor has
access to information that the patient generally does not have; and if the
patient has access, he or she can most probably not interpret it without
professional assistance (unless the patient is an 'expert patient'). Much of this
information can be abstract and does not easily translate into the context of
the everyday world. This creates challenges for the practitioners to fi nd ways
to communicate the meaning of medical technologies and the information
about the individual patient that is produced, as well as challenges related to
how information from medical technologies can be 'translated' into medical
advice that makes sense to the patient.
Finally, when the information produced by the technology is
communicated, some of this will have consequences for the patient's life-
style, hopes for the future and understanding of their own bodies. That is,
some information will raise problems in the everyday life of the patient, but
not necessarily in the medical world. Results from tests and examinations
can have consequences for the individual patient and his or her relatives,
in the sense that it changes the life course or the possibilities in life for the
