Ethics and Patient Centered Care Lecture Deals with Diagnostic Uncertainty

5th Annual Sue MacRae Lecture

on Ethics and Patient-Centred Care

"What is to Be Learned from

Diagnostic Uncertainty in the Clinic?"

Featuring:

Chloë Atkins,PhD
Associate Professor, Department of Communication and Culture,
Law and Society Program, Faculty of Arts
University of Calgary

Wednesday, 23 May 2012, 4:10 – 5:30 pm

Room 106
Health Sciences Building
155 College Street

Atkins will read from her book, My Imaginary Illness: A Journey into Uncertainty and Prejudice in Medical Diagnosis. It is the story of Atkins's decades-long battle with a disease deemed imaginary, her frustration with a succession of doctors and diagnoses, her immersion in the world of psychotherapy, and her excruciating physical and emotional journey back to wellness.

As both a political theorist and patient, Atkins provides a narrative critique of contemporary medicine and its problematic handling of uncertainty and of symptoms that are not easily diagnosed or known. She convincingly illustrates that medicine's belief in evidence-based practice does not mean that individual doctors are capable of objectivity, nor that the presence of biomedical ethics invokes ethical practices in hospitals and clinics. Afterward, Atkins will use her experiential knowledge as a patient to discuss several educational, and institutional barriers to good decision-making in the clinic. Finally, She will outline the joint CIHR research project between University of Calgary and the University of British Columbia that she is co-leading with regard to MUPS (Medically Unexplained Physical Symptoms) and the problem of uncertainty and non-diagnosis in health care.

Admission Free - No Registration Required