TY - JOUR
T1 - Rebirthing the clinic
T2 - The interaction of clinical judgment and genetic technology in the production of medical science
AU - Latimer, Joanna
AU - Featherstone, Katie
AU - Atkinson, Paul
AU - Clarke, Angus
AU - Pilz, Daniela T.
AU - Shaw, Alison
PY - 2006/9
Y1 - 2006/9
N2 - The article reconsiders the nature and location of science in the development of genetic classification. Drawing on field studies of medical genetics, we explore how patient categorization is accomplished in between the clinic and laboratory. We focus on dysmorphology, a specialism concerned with complex syndromes that impair physical development. We show that dys-morphology is about more than fitting patients into prefixed diagnostic categories and that diagnostic process is marked by moments of uncertainty, ambiguity, and deferral. We describe how different forms of evidence are brought into play and how patterns of physical features are identified as genetic or not. We suggest that clinical categorical work helps articulate the genetic as an emergent domain of medical classification and that moments of ambiguity and deferral create an imperative space that helps legitimate the need for more technoscience, and consequently, more clinical judgment with which to fix the genetic future.
AB - The article reconsiders the nature and location of science in the development of genetic classification. Drawing on field studies of medical genetics, we explore how patient categorization is accomplished in between the clinic and laboratory. We focus on dysmorphology, a specialism concerned with complex syndromes that impair physical development. We show that dys-morphology is about more than fitting patients into prefixed diagnostic categories and that diagnostic process is marked by moments of uncertainty, ambiguity, and deferral. We describe how different forms of evidence are brought into play and how patterns of physical features are identified as genetic or not. We suggest that clinical categorical work helps articulate the genetic as an emergent domain of medical classification and that moments of ambiguity and deferral create an imperative space that helps legitimate the need for more technoscience, and consequently, more clinical judgment with which to fix the genetic future.
KW - Clinical classification
KW - Dysmorphology
KW - Genetic science
KW - Medical knowledge
KW - Molecular technology
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=33747122587&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1177/0162243906289613
DO - 10.1177/0162243906289613
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:33747122587
SN - 0162-2439
VL - 31
SP - 599
EP - 630
JO - Science, Technology and Human Values
JF - Science, Technology and Human Values
IS - 5
ER -