Social Construction of Knowledge for Medical Research and Practice: Epistemological Interventions

Reference:

Timo Honkela. Social construction of knowledge for medical research and practice: Epistemological interventions. Abstract and presentation in EASST 2008 Conference, The European Association for the Study of Science and Technology, 2008.

Abstract:

Increased personal freedom, greater emphasis on and awareness of the rights of the individual, increased mobility, and declining importance of the family unit all have an impact on communitybased social networks and have indirect effects on the provision of health care (Kekki 2004). Educated consumers of health care services are becoming more and more aware of the availability of potentially relevant information in the web. Web search engines are used widely by the patients who more and more often question the quality of diagnostic practices based on this information. Bedgood et al. (2007) believe that the web can also provide physicianresearchers with useful information about common and uncommon diseases. Moreover, they state that the web allows patients to voice concerns that they may not freely express to their doctor. The web provides a means for collecting data from a larger number of patients than may be available at any single institution (Bedgood et al. 2007). In general, the developments outlined above exemplify a chance in power relations and social practices within health care. One of the relevant points of view is epistemological. Scientific medical knowledge is socially constructed by the community of researchers and often considered as an objective body of information. This information the medical practitioners then should apply through some well defined procedures, e.g., within the framework of evidence based medicine and technological tools such as the Semantic Web. However, the patients are not machines that could be treated and manipulated regardless of their knowledge and emotions. This means that, optimally, the patients should be included as coproducers of knowledge as a community of experiential practitioners of their own life. Unless this body of knowledge is not taken into account, a number of relevant complex feedback mechanisms are not taken into account. This paper discusses 1) the incluence of an epistemological turn (Knuuttila and Honkela 2005) in the field of medical research and practice, 2) presents some suggestions for participatory practices for medical research , and 3) discusses the information technological tools, based on the principle of selforganization, that could support such developments.

Suggested BibTeX entry:

@misc{HonkelaEASST2008,
    author = {Timo Honkela},
    howpublished = {Abstract and presentation in EASST 2008 Conference, The European Association for the Study of Science and Technology},
    title = {Social Construction of Knowledge for Medical Research and Practice: Epistemological Interventions},
    year = {2008},
}