Research Center on Economic Sociology and the Sociology of Organisations, Institute of Economics and Business Administration- Technical University of Lisbon (ISEG/UTL), Portugal.
Health (London). 2010 Mar;14(2):162-77. doi: 10.1177/1363459309353297.
This article explores the ways in which the mastery of particular medical technologies plays a crucial role in drawing the boundaries between medical specialities, to form what we refer to as medical technocracies. It sets out, above all, to demonstrate how the frontiers between the different medical specialities act, on the one hand, as articulating mechanisms to be found in the division of medical work and, on the other hand, as barriers to the interaction of the various skills. Through a more searching study of the division of labour between surgeons and liver specialists (hepatologists) and surgeons and anaesthetics, we highlight the contrast between those two sets of relations.This illustrates the boundaries and articulation that exist between medical technocracies. The key theoretical guidelines are drawn from medical sociology and sociology of professions. The research methodology includes participant observation in a liver transplantation hospital unit and on site interviews. By using data gathered from physicians actually working in such areas where boundaries have been drawn between surgeons and anaesthesiologists and surgeons and liver specialists, we propose to understand how different medical skills are negotiated between the different groups and where the social arrangements are the result of processes of interaction between the different specialities, which are constantly being reorganized and redefined.
本文探讨了掌握特定医疗技术在划定医学专业界限方面所起的关键作用，从而形成了我们所谓的“医疗技术统治”。本文首先旨在展示不同医学专业之间的界限一方面作为医疗工作分工的体现机制，另一方面作为各种技能相互作用的障碍而发挥作用。通过更深入地研究外科医生和肝脏专家（肝病学家）以及外科医生和麻醉师之间的分工，我们强调了这两组关系之间的对比。这说明了医疗技术统治之间存在的界限和联系。关键的理论指导原则来自医学社会学和职业社会学。研究方法包括在肝脏移植医院病房进行参与式观察和现场访谈。通过使用从外科医生和麻醉师以及外科医生和肝脏专家之间已经划定界限的领域中的实际工作的医生收集的数据，我们提出了理解不同医疗技能如何在不同群体之间协商以及社会安排如何是不同专业之间相互作用过程的结果的问题，这些过程不断被重新组织和重新定义。
