Although extensive research addresses minorities’ low participation in clinical research, most focuses almost exclusively on therapeutic trials. The existing literature might mask important issues concerning minorities’ participation in clinical trials, and minorities might actually be overrepresented in phase I safety studies that require the participation of healthy volunteers. It is critical to consider the entire … Read more

Although the field of Surveillance Studies privileges detailed accounts of how and when surveillance occurs, it is also important to remain open to instances of aborted or failed surveillance and manifold impediments to surveillance. It is vital for researchers to document and theorize absence in order to better understand and perhaps mitigate the presence of … Read more

Renée Fox and Judith Swazey’s most recent book traces the origins and development of the field of bioethics, including their participation in it over the past 40 years. According to the authors, the aims of Observing Bioethics are to describe the “intellectual, professional, and organizational development” of bioethics and to situate the field within its … Read more

This paper develops the concept of “biosecuritization” to describe new instantiations of the technological imperative in healthcare. Many discourses and practices surrounding hospitals’ new investments in information and communication technologies tend to revolve around security provision. Often times, however, scenarios of extreme and exceptional circumstances are used to justify the implementation of identification and tracking … Read more

OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study was to assess empirically the social and ethical risks associated with implantable radio-frequency identification (RFID) devices. METHODS: Qualitative research included observational studies in twenty-three U.S. hospitals that have implemented new patient identification systems and eighty semi-structured interviews about the social and ethical implications of new patient identification systems, including … Read more

BACKGROUND: Biological sex differences and sociocultural gender norms affect the provision of health care products and services, but there has been little explicit analysis of the impact of sex differences and gender norms on the regulation of pharmaceutical development and marketing. OBJECTIVES: This article provides an overview of the regulation of pharmaceuticals and examines the … Read more

This paper responds to the criticism that “observer effects” in ethnographic research necessarily bias and therefore invalidate research findings. Instead of aspiring to distance and detachment, some of the greatest strengths of ethnographic research lie in cultivating close ties with others and collaboratively shaping discourses and practices in the field. Informants’ performances – however staged … Read more

This article analyses the ways in which research coordinators forge professional identities in the highly gendered organizational context of the clinic. Drawing upon qualitative research on the organization of the clinical trials industry (that is, the private sector, for profit auxiliary companies that support pharmaceutical drug studies), this article explores the relationships between predominantly male … Read more

Structured AbstractObjectives:The Vanderbilt Evidence-based Practice Center systematically reviewed evidence on treatment of overactive bladder (OAB), urge urinary incontinence, and related symptoms. We focused on prevalence and incidence, treatment outcomes, comparisons of treatments, modifiers of outcomes, and costs.Data:We searched PubMed, MEDLINE®, EMBASE, and CINAHL.Review Methods:We included studies published in English from January 1966 to October 2008. … Read more

In this paper I explore the politics of trust in the clinical testing of pharmaceuticals in the US. Specifically, I analyze trust in terms of its institutional manifestations in the pharmaceutical clinical trials industry. In the process of testing new drugs, pharmaceutical companies must (1) protect their proprietary information from the clinicians who conduct their … Read more