Description
Book SynopsisApplies a social science perspective to exploring issues arising in clinical practice as a result of drug development linked to genetic testing. These include the social context within which new drugs are trialled, attitudes of the clinicians asked to administer them, expectations of clinicians and patients and associated ethical issues.
Trade ReviewWell organized and well written, this book is a useful, relevant and timely read for social scientists interested in issues of science, technology, biomedicine, and healthcare - Ryan Reikowsky, University of Arizona.
As a study in the social construction of scientific and clinical knowledge, this book can hardly be bettered. It is clearly and interestingly written, and the reader cannot fail to be impressed by the subtleties of Hedgecoe's argument. Richard Ashcroft, Queen Mary, University of London, UK
It is conceptually innovative and empirically grounded, and points to a new way of looking at the process of technical change in medicine. Paul Martin, University of Nottingham, UK
"...Hedgecoe's study both illumniates new perspectives on pharmacogenetics, and serves as a welcome corrective to work within medical sociology which...implicityly depreciates the role of politics in medicine." Linsey McGoey, London School of Economics and Political Science, British Journal of Sociology
"...this work is an extremely useful addition to STS and to anyone interested in a long-term perspective on drug development." -Emily Marden, Science, Technology & Human Values
Table of Contents1. Personalised medicine - a revolution in health care; 2. Pharmacogenetics, expectation and promissory science; 3. Genetics, moral risk and professional resistance; 4. Clinical resistance to Alzheimer's pharmacogenetics; 5. Research, industry and pharmacogenetic literacy; 6. Engineering the clinic - getting personalised medicine into practice; 7. The fourth hurdle - cost effectiveness and the funding of pharmacogenetics; 8. Disappointment and disclosure in the pharmacogenetic clinic; 9. The personalised is political.
