Managing Medical Authority: How Doctors Compete for Status and Create Knowledge

The authority of medicine is shaped by relationships among physicians, industry, colleagues, and organizations. Daniel Menchik's book explores how knowledge is shared, decisions are made, and physicians gain and keep their influence. He argues that medicine's authority is managed in collegial competition across venues, with medical trainees, clinicians, researchers, administrators, and corporations driving the field. Menchik's ethnographic approach shows how stakeholders ally across venues, even as they are sometimes pressed into competition, strengthening the authority of medicine as a whole.

Format: Hardback
Length: 328 pages
Publication date: 30 November 2021
Publisher: Princeton University Press

Authority delves into the intricate dynamics that shape the authority of medicine. It explores how knowledge is shared, decisions are made, and physicians gain and maintain influence within the profession. Daniel Menchik, the author, argues that the authority of medicine is managed through collegial competition across various venues, including hospitals, professional committees, and industry-sponsored meetings.

Through his ethnographic approach, Menchik examines the roles of medical trainees, clinicians, researchers, administrators, and corporations in shaping the field. He takes readers inside Superior Hospital, observing surgeries, executive negotiations, and professional committees as they develop standards and guidelines for treatments, case management, and professional ethics.

Menchik also observes how stakeholders ally across these venues, forming alliances and rivalries that strengthen the authority of medicine as a whole. He highlights how a medical specialty renews and reinvigorates itself, evolving through changes in knowledge, technology, and professional practices.

Managing Medical Authority provides a comprehensive understanding of the complex factors that govern the authority of medicine. It sheds light on the decision-making processes, power dynamics, and alliances that shape the field, and offers insights into the ongoing renewal and reinvigoration of medical specialties.

Weight: 660g
Dimension: 241 x 162 x 28 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780691223568