Health, Ahead of Print. In this paper we present findings from a qualitative ethnographic study investigating the experiences and perceptions of general practitioners and other practice staff when introducing a new point of care diagnostic test technology (point of care polymerase chain reaction (POC PCR)) in general practice in Denmark. The ethnographic study was conducted in five general practice clinics, involving observations in four of the clinics and interviews with general practitioners and practice staff in all five clinics. Following an initial analytic phase in which barriers and fac ..read more

Health, Ahead of Print. Open Dialogue practitioners aim to reduce social hierarchies by not privileging any one voice in social network conversations, and thus creating space for a polyphony of voices. This sits in contrast to the traditional privileging of those voices credited with more knowledge or power because of social position or professional expertise. Using qualitative interviews, the aim of this current study was to explore Open Dialogue practitioners’ descriptions of challenges in implementing Open Dialogue at a women’s health clinic in Australia. Findings revealed how attempts to r ..read more

Health, Ahead of Print. Patient and Public Involvement in Research (PPIR) has become an increasingly prevalent and integral part of biomedical research. In this paper, we focus on patient-led research, taking as our case the construction of new biomedical knowledge regarding the rare disease ADNP syndrome. Specifically, we seek to understand how concepts of experiential knowledge and lay expertise become integral to rather than separate from scientific expertise. In the case of ADNP, the parent-led research “mimes” biomedical knowledge practices in a way that, on the one hand, enhances the leg ..read more

Health, Ahead of Print. Increasing numbers of older people undergo major surgery in the United Kingdom (UK), with many at high risk of complications due to age, co-morbidities or frailty. This article reports on a study of such patients and their clinicians engaged in shared decision-making. Shared decision-making is a collaborative approach that seeks to value and centre patients’ preferences, potentially addressing asymmetries of knowledge and power between clinicians and patients by countering medical authority with greater patient empowerment. We studied shared decision-making practices in ..read more

Health, Ahead of Print. The lived experiences of higher-weight people vary; homogenous samples may fail to capture this diversity. This study develops an in-depth understanding of the lived experiences of higher-weight (Body Mass Index ⩾ 30) older adults (⩾60 years of age) in a Canadian Atlantic province. Participants (n = 11) were interviewed face-to-face using a semi-structured interview guide twice at 2-to-3-month intervals regarding their perceived treatment in social and health situations; how positive and negative healthcare experiences affected their health, lifestyles and healthcare se ..read more

Health, Ahead of Print. Framed across three distinct periods of the history of neoliberalism and the HIV epidemic in England, this article conducts a detailed examination of the concept of personal responsibility and its contested uses within HIV prevention. The article questions the theoretical potential of neoliberal subjectivities to comprehend behaviours related to the pharmaceuticalised governance (or lack thereof) of gay men’s sexual health, exploring the gap between theories emphasising individual responsibility and the practical experiences of gay men. The analysis draws on testimonial ..read more

Health, Ahead of Print. This article analyses the digital screen as a health technology. In particular, the article asks how screens as a part of therapy settings or counselling practices materialise – or fail to materialise – care. The empirical data comprise interviews with therapy and counselling professionals, whose experiences with technology during the COVID-19 pandemic were my original interest. Adopting a sociomaterial approach to technology use, it scrutinises not only how screens are used, but also how screens themselves act and operate. This approach foregrounds the screen as ‘multi ..read more

Health, Ahead of Print. To reduce morbidity and mortality of cancer, more countries have implemented strategies to detect cancer, based on the logic of ‘the sooner the better’. Time is thereby an essential component in how cancer research, policies, and prevention are practiced today. Where the logic of early diagnosis benefits some, the logic also produces harms. In this article, we use a cross-disciplinary case-study design to discuss how different notions of time and linearity are essential in today’s research ontology of cancer, describe the individual and societal consequences of such ont ..read more

Health, Ahead of Print. Psychiatric practice has always entailed a coercive dimension, visible not only in its formal expressions (e.g. compulsory treatment) but in many informal and implicit forms. In fact, contemporary psychiatric practices are characterized by an interplay of coercion and dialog to be interpreted not as binary categories but as extremes of a spectrum. Within this perspective, it becomes crucial to draw boundaries attributing meaning to professional identities and practices in psychiatric work. This is particularly relevant in acute wards: to explore this issue, we selected ..read more

Health, Ahead of Print. Service-based caring sectors like disability are increasingly being operated via market logic, including shifts towards personalised funding. These shifts must be brought to life in/through people already located in relation to ideas and values that underpin historical policies. Our manuscript examines how identities are re/shaped in relation to marketised policy change and explores how identity change unfolds (or not) during periods of transition: situated within the transition to the National Disability Insurance Scheme executed in Australia as a major disability fund ..read more