The Sociology of Medical Science and Technology

by Elston, Mary Ann

• ISBN13: 9780631204473
• ISBN10: 0631204474
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1997-12-30
• Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell

Summary

The Sociology of Medical Science and Technology contributes to the growing debate about the relationship between science and medicine by bringing together approaches from two areas of sociology; the sociology of medicine, and the sociology of science and technology. Drawing on research in the United Kingdom, Europe, Australia, Japan and North America, this book provides a fascinating perspective on many key aspects of modern medicine.Contributors examine the relationship between science and clinical practice, and the development, assessment and regulation of pharmaceutical products and health care technologies. The implications of the new genetics are also considered through case studies of genetic counseling practice and the development of genetic screening methods. Other chapters examine public understanding of science and medicine in the context of chronic disease. This book will form an invaluable resource to all those researching, teaching or studying modern health care.

Author Biography

Mary Ann Elston is Senior Lecturer in Sociology at Royal Holloway, University of London. Her research interests include the organisaton of biomedical research, the health care professions and gender and health care. She is co-editor of the journal Sociology of Health and Illness.

Table of Contents

Assessing the Social Impact of Genetic Biotechnologies (La Trobe University Australia)

The Abortion Pill RU486: A Case of Organizational and Technological Change (Anglia Polytechnic University)

'strange Bedfellows' in the Laboratory of the NHS? An Institutional and Methodological Analysis of the new Science of Health Technology Assessment in the United Kingdom (University of Bristol)

The Rhetoric of Prediction and Chance in the Research to Clone a Disease Gene (University of Wales, Cardiff)

Knowledge of the Body: Lay and Biomedical Understanding of Musculoskeletal Disorders (University of Salford)

The Science and Politics of Medicines Regulation (University of Sussex)

Medical Pedigrees and the Visual Production of Family Disease in Canadian and Japanese Genetic Counseling Practices (McGill University, Canada)

Vital Comparisons: The Social Construction of Measurement in Health (University College, London) and (Charing Cross and Westminster Medical School, London)

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