AUTHOR: Sarah Cove TITLE: Who are physicians in the ontological design discourse? DATE: 1/25/2007 02:37:00 PM ----- BODY:

This post is a speculative discussion that I am opening up. Not all of my story will be accurate, and what I am writing comes from a non-rigorous history I have of doctors. I'm not quite sure where these distinctions will take me, if they will be useful or not, but Who a physician is has changed over time as the world has become more networked and new wastes and opportunities have been declared. From a single town physician who fixed bones, delivered babies, and diagnosed diseases, to someone who focuses on cutting costs I am speculating that physicians are understood by their customers as providers of a service, which is a promise to effectively diagnose bodily symptoms and solve these symptoms. People go to doctors to get better and expect to get better, or they say they have a bad doctor and go to someone else. Now this might not be how everyone understands physicians or how physicians understand themselves, especially when complicated problems come in to play, like cancer or alzheimers. Also, this distinction, and who a doctor's customer is, is made more complicated with the administrative aspects of medicine brought on by HMOs, etc. Who is the customer of the doctor today compared to who it was previously. If you have any thoughts, and would like to help me construct a story about what a physician is today, please comment.

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