Doctoral Dissertation Research: The U.S. Lyme Disease Controversy: Medical Knowledge, Biopolitics, and the Environment

博士论文研究：美国莱姆病争议：医学知识、生物政治和环境

• 批准号: 1022591
• 负责人: Marcia Inhorn
• 金额: $ 1.94万
• 依托单位: Yale University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2010
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2010-09-01 至 2012-02-29
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1022591&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Doctoral; Dissertation; Research; U.S.; Lyme

Under the guidance of Dr. Marcia C. Inhorn, Yale University doctoral student Abigail Dumes will examine the controversy that surrounds the diagnosis and treatment of Lyme disease in the United States. In particular, the researcher will investigate why, in a new era of "evidence-based medicine" (i.e., the paradigmatic shift toward the scientific standardization of biomedical practice), there are two emergent standards of care for Lyme disease and how these standards of care may be related to political power and understandings of the natural environment. The research will be conducted over 18 months, primarily in Connecticut, among Lyme disease patients, physicians, and scientists. The researcher will collect qualitative data through a variety of methods, including participant observation, unstructured and semi-structured interviews, elicitation of illness narratives, and the collection of popular, academic, and virtual media related to Lyme disease. These data will allow the researcher to explore: 1) the relationship between evidence-based medicine and the production and practice of biomedical knowledge; 2) attitudes toward the political regulation of Lyme diagnosis and treatment; and 3) changing understandings of the natural environment, as they affect and are affected by understandings of this disease. This research is important because evidence-based medicine increasingly determines how public health decisions are made. Therefore, a study that explores how evidence-based medicine informs knowledge production and practice among Lyme disease patients, physicians, and scientists will have broad comparative implications for studies of other infectious diseases. Findings from this research may also improve health care for patients with Lyme disease and help policymakers develop guidelines.

在Marcia C. Inhorn博士的指导下，耶鲁大学博士生Abigail Dumes将研究围绕美国莱姆病的诊断和治疗的争议。特别是，研究人员将研究为什么在“循证医学”的新时代（即，向生物医学实践的科学标准化的范式转变），有两个新兴的莱姆病护理标准，以及这些护理标准如何与政治权力与自然环境的政治权力有关。这项研究将在莱姆病患者，医师和科学家中进行18个月的时间，主要在康涅狄格州进行。研究人员将通过多种方法收集定性数据，包括参与者观察，非结构化和半结构化访谈，促进疾病叙事以及与莱姆病有关的流行，学术和虚拟媒体的收集。这些数据将使研究人员能够探索：1）基于证据的医学与生物医学知识的生产和实践之间的关系； 2）对莱姆诊断和治疗的政治规定的态度； 3）改变对自然环境的理解，因为它们影响并受到对这种疾病的理解的影响。这项研究很重要，因为循证医学越来越多地决定了如何做出公共卫生决策。因此，一项研究探索循证医学如何为莱姆病患者，医师和科学家的知识生产和实践提供信息的研究将对其他传染病的研究产生广泛的比较。这项研究的结果还可以改善莱姆病患者的医疗保健，并帮助决策者制定准则。