Cancer Control Research
1R03CA077101-01
Freedman, Tovia G.
CANCER PREVENTION AND TREATMENT CHOICE--WHO DECIDES
AbstractDESCRIPTION (Applicant's Description) Knowledge building concerning the
contexts within which informed decision making and consent take place is
critical at a time when the provision of basic medical services, the
institution of medicine and the constitution of the hospital are changing.
The consequent social, cultural and ethical quandaries that are created by
these changes have direct import for the delivery of medical care, the
patients' involvement and participation in their care, the promotion of
health, the prevention of disease and the advancement of knowledge through
medical-scientific research.
The first-hand, in-depth observation of the interaction between physician
and breast cancer patient within the decision making and consent process
will provide 1) the data necessary to analyze this critical process in
scientific and medical treatment and research and 2) the knowledge to
integrate psychosocial and biomedical concerns with the bioethical issues
that must be faced in making life altering decisions concerning cancer
prevention, treatment and research.
The primary aims of the proposed research will be accomplished through and
ethnographic inquiry that will include methods of the in-depth interview and
field observation. Breast cancer patients and their physicians will be the
participants. The women patients and physicians will come from varied
ethnic, age, religious, economic and educational backgrounds.
A casebook containing a variety of decision making and consent situations
will be developed, based on the data, with the aim of enhancing
comprehension and access to information.
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