Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
times that it said 'click, click, click'. And then you screen yourself and
then you count how many times you did it approximately, and it was the
same thing. You have it in your eyes.
Several experienced cytodiagnosticians emphasised the value of
ergonomic improvements of the microscope. Present microscopes are much
better adapted to the body, as compared with those in the 1960s, they said.
Basically, the microscope was the tool that enabled them to 'enter another
world' and seemed for many of them to have become an extension of their
bodies:
This [the microscope] is my 'tool of the trade', it should be clean and it
should be properly set up, and it should not be defective in any way. It
is my eyes …
(Petra, Cyto lab)
It is a world of colours and cells (…) the microscope is sort of a device
that takes me into this world. Without the microscope I can't get into
this world.
(Filippa, Cyto lab)
… It means a lot to have a good microscope, which has good magnifi cation
and that you feel comfortable with and sit well with (…) It becomes
almost personal. You have to have your own in order to feel good and
not get problems. It is immediately noticeable if someone else has sat
there …
(Birgitta, Cyto lab)
The diagnosticians had learned screening by a bodily socialisation.
First, they often emphasised how screening 'should be done', in talk and
practice, according to shared and commonly accepted criteria (e.g. to
look at everything, the importance of overlapping and the adjusting of
sharpness). Second, the cytodiagnosticians skills in screening cytology can
be conceptualised as (em)bodied seeing where the microscope had become
an extension of their bodies. They no longer consciously thought about
how to handle the microscope, how to look at all cells on the microscope
slide, when and how to make the picture sharp, with what speed they should
perform screening, and fi nally how to do overlapping. However, not all
aspects of screening were embodied in the above-mentioned sense. Assessing
the representativeness of the samples or performing screening with a new
microscope where examples of more consciously performed screening, even
after long experience. I indicate both aspects by putting 'em' in embodied
in brackets.
