In the sociomedical laboratory of citizen health: exploring science, technology, governance and engagement in prostate cancer detection in the UK

Faulkner, Alex 2005. In the sociomedical laboratory of citizen health: exploring science, technology, governance and engagement in prostate cancer detection in the UK. [Working Paper]. School of Social Sciences Working Papers Series, vol. 74. Cardiff: Cardiff University.

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Abstract

Evidential science and governance are closely linked in contemporary societies, nowhere more than in the domain of health policy. Healthcare technology is everywhere scrutinised and innovating, raising questions of the relationship between the modernising state and citizens’ engagement in healthcare knowledge and practice. Prostate cancer is acknowledged as a major public health problem internationally, and has been widely represented in the mass media. Unusually, it is a high‐profile disease affecting only men. International, national and local policies for the appropriate healthcare response vary and are contested. This paper presents a preliminary consideration of the role of an evolving healthcare technology, the prostate‐specific antigen (PSA) blood test in the construction of this ‘public health’ problem; it identifies controversy between clinical practice and policy discourse on the disease – influenced by the methodologies of healthcare science; and it considers the part played by the science of prostate cancer detection in the shaping of the healthcare sciences. The significance of the engagement of men in sociomedical spaces of scientific uncertainty and healthcare risk is discussed. The paper draws upon science and technology studies (STS) approaches and concepts of public policy analysis. Materials used include medical and epidemiological research and commentary; surveys of the use and interpretation of the PSA test and treatment options by doctors; materials emerging from healthcare science (the health technology assessment and ‘health service research’ movements); and healthcare policy documents. This exploratory paper discusses what was formerly regarded as ‘early‐stage’ prostate cancer in the sense of localised disease confined to the prostate, and also is focused on the ‘early’ phase of healthcare science and governance engagement with this issue, which continues to evolve.

Item Type:	Monograph (Working Paper)
Date Type:	Publication
Status:	Published
Schools:	Social Sciences (Includes Criminology and Education)
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > H Social Sciences (General)
Publisher:	Cardiff University
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	30 March 2016
Last Modified:	11 Nov 2016 09:54
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/78145

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