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On the Relevance of the “Genetics‐Based” Approach to Medicine for Sociological Perspectives on Medical Specialization *
Author(s) -
Leeming William
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
canadian review of sociology/revue canadienne de sociologie
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.414
H-Index - 35
eISSN - 1755-618X
pISSN - 1755-6171
DOI - 10.1111/j.1755-618x.2007.tb01132.x
Subject(s) - relevance (law) , citation , sociology , session (web analytics) , library science , social science , law , political science , computer science , world wide web
This paper draws on a study on the development of medical genetics as a medical specialism in the UK and Canada to reflect on how local and national contexts affect specialty formation. The paper begins by supporting earlier findings in the literature that stress, first, technological innovations as driving specialty formation, and, second, the domination of physicians in the division of medical labour. Beyond this, however, the paper explores the specific circumstances under which geneticists set about turning their work into a medical specialism based on a “genetics-based approach” to illness and how “medical genetics” as a specialism was assessed and configured to fit national and regional health service requirements