>By way of introduction, I am a part time GP Principal with active interests
>in Postgraduate Education and Medical Informatics. As a medical practitioner
>I am daily reminded of the importance of story; as a teacher I am familiar
>with the use of narrative art forms to supplement 'scientific' teaching; as
>an informatician I am concerned with the narrative aspects of the health
>record.
>
>My question is about the purpose of the list (or perhaps the nature of
>narrative-health-research). Is this to research narratives in health
>practice, or is it to study narrative in health research?
ONE RESPONSE
The formulation in the "To" heading of this email was worked out by Trish
Greenhalgh and myself and was supposed to allow different possible users to
use the list in different ways: an enabling rather than a constraining
definition. So, I would hope that you would try to use it in either or both
of the ways that you present as alternatives, and others may use it in same
or different ways.
The 'history' of a standard and other medical research project takes place
over time, usually with a rather cleaned-up and sanitised history to fit
the 'genre' of 20th century medical reports. There may be unofficial
histories that could be narrated with a different account. For example,
haven't the Lancet and the BMJ recently narrated an implied history of
drug-company pressure on 'medical reports of drug trials', leading to the
non-independence of 'independent' drug-trials.
The grip of a particular 'genre' of acceptable reports and its possible
mutations and differences it seems to me would be well worth studying. I
have heard that there is research going on into the history of 'medical
case-notes' and 'case-histories' over longish periods of time, and there
may be differences between national cultures and between the private, the
corporate and the public sector.
Best wishes
Tom
>
>Behind my question is the notion that, although the formal presentation of
>randomised controlled trials and the like is impersonal, there is discourse
>and narrative around the results of standard medical research. Presumably
>(though I have no experience of this) there is discourse and story during
>the process of the research too.
>
>Paul
>
>Paul Robinson
>General Practitioner, Scarborough
>GP Consultant Sowerby Centre, Newcastle
>Hon. Senior Clinical Lecturer, Leeds
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London N10 3LR
UK
(44)/(0) 20 8883 9297 / 8444-4322
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