The Changing Character of the Medical Profession: A Theoretical Overview

Technological advances in medicine have greatly enhanced the ability of physicians to treat disease and disability, but, at the same time, changes in the organization and management of health care services in the United States have imposed constraints on their autonomy. How have these changes-medica...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The Milbank quarterly 1988-01, Vol.66 (1988), p.10-32
Main Authors: Light, Donald, Levine, Sol
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Autonomy
Capitalism
Corporate bureaucracy
Corporations
Decline
Europe
Health care costs
Health insurance
Health professions
Humans
Medical practice
Medical profession
Medicine - trends
Nonprofit hospitals
Patient care
Philosophy, Medical
Physicians
Power (Psychology)
Professional Corporations
Professional dominance
Professional Practice - trends
Professionalization
Role
Social Control, Formal
Social Dominance
Theoretical Perspective
United States
United States of America
USA
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Summary:Technological advances in medicine have greatly enhanced the ability of physicians to treat disease and disability, but, at the same time, changes in the organization and management of health care services in the United States have imposed constraints on their autonomy. How have these changes-medical advancement and professional decline-affected the theoretical concept of the medical profession? Challenging the prevailing model of professional dominance, the concepts of deprofessionalization, corporatization, and proletarianization emphasize the effects of recent social and economic developments on the changing status of the medical profession. There is evidence, however, that what the proponents of these concepts perceive as the profession's response to external forces are, in fact, the unanticipated consequences of the profession's campaign for autonomy.
ISSN:0887-378X
1468-0009
DOI:10.2307/3349912