Seeing and Hearing the Patient: Technology and Power Flashcards
What was significant about the x-ray?
For the first time, we can really see inside the patient–don’t have to cut open.
-Physicians no longer “looking in your rye” they are “looking throughoyou”
When was the “explosion” in medical technology and scientific theory?
20th century.
Where was medicine largely consolidated?
In institutions (hospitals, university ties)
What became the first point of contact rather than the last resort?
going to clinical facilities
What gave rise to sub0specialities?
professional authority stabilized
What world events stimulated interest and attracted resources in medicine?
the world wards
What kind of funding led to medical industries expanding?
government, industry, and philanthropic organizations like the rockefellers
What did medical funding lead to?
- More opportunities
- Concentration of resources ,more opportunities for experimentation
- Dramatic increase in money spent on it
What country became the place for medical education and innovation?
the US
In the 20th century, what are their new investments in?
-Diagnostic technology
laboratory studies –> urine samples, etc.
In the 20th century, what was there a greater dependence on?
Laboratory studies for diagnostics
What did an increased dependence on diagnostic studies lead to?
increased training and sub-specialization
Do these investments and the increasing use of medical technology in particular, modernize medicine?
- Lots of accidents that were made rational justified
- Not just technology aspects that make medicine modern
- What is ‘modern’? Is ‘modern’ always better?
What was the efficiency craze?
The was the efficiency craze?
turn of the 20th century
How did technology become both a product and tool of the efficiency agenda?
- trying to imagine was to make things more efficient
- empirical reasoning
- mechanization of society –> universal trends
What was ‘modern’ medicine subject to and participation in? How?
the standardization process
-medical examinations, vaccinations, inoculations.
What changed about medical management in the 20th century?
- Healthcare as a business
- Record keeping
- Financial efficiency
Hospitalization led to larger facilities, and a growing need for what?
-accounting departments (financial efficiency) and technology to support the ‘business’ of hospitals (record keeping)
What is ‘modern medical technology”
- machines that enhance the functioning of the institution (typewriters, laundry facilities, dishwashers, etc)
- machines used directly on/for patients (MRIs, CAT/PET scanners, X-Rays).
Why did we lost ability to describe what we are feeling?
dependence and reliance on machines to tell us something
What did records (graphs, charts, lab reports) contribute to the need for?
higher levels of specialization and expertise to adequately (and efficiently) analyst medical data
What is laboratory medicine?
technology also used in clinical context, especially in laboratories
-in labs is where interpretation takes place, is where outcomes are predicted
What takes place in the lab?
- make clinical decisions
- establish diagnoses
- make diagnoses
- guide therapies
What is an example of using laboratory technology just to just it?
-Urinalysis become routine part of hospital visit, regardless of illness/ailment
What were the new layers of investigation that urinalysis combined with?
- chemical
- gravity
- sugar content
- colour
- smell
Urinalysis therefore used at___(diagnostic), but also to chart a partings___.
- outset
- prognosis
What follows a similar path of urinalysis?
blood tests
What do blood tests and urine tests, etc. do to patients with their diseases?
distances patient from diseases (feel alienated)
When was the x-ray discovered?
1895
Who discovered the x-ray?
wilhem conrad rontgen
How did the x-ray work?
- passed electoral current through a cathode-ray tube and produced a new form of radiation
- radiation penetrated solid objects and could be used to produce photographic images
What was the x0ray the first opportunity to look through?
flesh without surgery
Why did he call them x-ray?
because he didn’t know what they are made of
What did the x-ray influence?
- influenced medical and popular attitudes towards bodies
- changed the way we thought about the body
Did hospitals increasingly purchase x-rays?
yes
What did the x-ray become?
a symbol of advanced medicine
-modern cutting edge hospital
Why was there some resistance towards the x-ray in the medical community?
Belief that reliance on x-ray reduced the thoroughness of a patient examination
- reduced emphasis on doctor’s interpretation
- wouldn’t require a medical specialist
- contributed to the idea that medicine is more objective
What did medical technology add to the complexity of the hospital system?
efficience, scientific, technological, objective
How did medical technology contribute to sub-specialization?
radiologists, lab techs
What is the relationship between medical records and medical technology?
new tests fave rise to new administrative needs (patients charts and files)
What was Thomas Laquer’s critique of medical technology?
“Instead of being the consequent of increased scientific knowledge, new ways of looking at the body were…new ways of representing an idea of constituting social realities”
- Critical of medical technology moving to a rational way of looking at body
- Doesn’t allow us to see something more clearly, just reinforces what we want to see.
How were medical technologies employed to reinforce social constructed meanings?
Imaging technologies, for example avoid subjective, critical analysis, and instead confirm (or look for) characteristics that reinforce identities (gender, race, disease, health)
-It privileges medical evidence and medical expertise
What does seeing the human body lead to with elements of humility, gender, race disability?
- seeing women’s bodies on the screen
- dr and patient relationship changes
