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Posted Tue, 30 Sep 2014 08:57:51
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You are invited to the next London MedSoc meeting at King’s College London, which will take place on Wednesday, 08.10.14 from 6-7.30pm at the Franklin Wilkins Building, Stamford Street, London SE1 6NN, Room 1.16.
The Theme will be Health Policy, facilitated by Annie Nixon. There will be two presentations, with plenty of time for discussion.
1) Sara Shaw
What are ‘think tanks’ and why should medical sociologists pay more attention to them?
Medical sociologists have an established interest in the role of interest groups, advocacy organisations and corporate interests in shaping healthcare. Yet few have explored the work of think tanks. A quick search of the medical sociology literature reveals little close analysis of these organisations, their activities or the people allied to them. In this presentation, I explore why this is, unpacking the term ‘think tank’ and arguing for far greater attention to be given to the range of organisations, actors, coalitions, everyday activities, artefacts and interactions that make up ‘think tanks’ and that work to shape health policy and planning. I draw on analysis of existing literature (largely, but not exclusively, drawn from political science and public administration), as well as recent research I have undertaken examining the role of think tanks in shaping health policy. My aim is to encourage medical sociologists - no matter what their interests - to take up the challenge of understanding and analysing ‘think tanks’.
Bio-sketch
Sara is Senior Lecturer in Health Policy Research at Queen Mary University of London. She has a background in medical sociology and policy studies. Her research focuses on health policy and healthcare practices and she has a particular interest in discourse analysis and exploring how organisational processes, routines and decision-making are created through social interaction and shape healthcare. Sara has published widely on topics including healthcare commissioning, integrated care, patient experience and health research policy. She also writes about interpretive approaches to understanding and analysing policy. Her most recent work on the role of think tanks in shaping health policy has been published in Sociology of Health & Illness (2014) and Critical Policy Studies (in press).
2) Jonathan Gabe
Challenging the power of the medical profession: an assessment of recent developments.
We are so accustomed to thinking of the profession of medicine as a stable institution with considerable power that it is sometimes difficult to imagine that times may have changed. Yet, in recent decades, the position of the medical profession does appear to have been challenged. The regulatory `bargain’ with the state seems to have been undermined, with new state agencies undermining the traditional model of self-regulation. The increasing power of managers to impose a target driven culture and quality standards threatens the ability of doctors to make autonomous clinical decisions. And the growth of consumerism, with patients challenging the old paternalistic model and demanding to be involved in decision making about treatment, often on the basis of information gleaned from the internet, has been interpreted as a challenge to doctors’ cultural authority. In addition, the pharmaceutical industry has allegedly colonised the medical profession by taking over knowledge production. This talk considers this range of challenges to the medical profession, informed in particular by developments in the UK, and draws out the implications for the future of professional power.
Bio-sketch
Jonathan Gabe is Professor of Sociology at Royal Holloway, University of London and has research interests in pharmaceuticals, chronic illness and health care organisation. He was a co-investigator on an ESRC funded study about the publication of surgical outcome data and will draw on this research in his presentation. He is a past editor of the journal Sociology of Health and Illness, and past president of the International Sociological Association RC15 Sociology of Health.
This is the last London MedSoc Group meeting organised from King’s College London. A new Team from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (Oliver Bonnington, Lorelei Jones, Judith Green) and the University of East London (Sharon Gallagher) will arrange future events at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine in central London.
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Richard Compton
Dept. of Nutrition & Dietetics
Franklin Wilkins Building
Kings College London
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