Shadow Work by Craig Lambert

Author:Craig Lambert [Lambert, Craig]
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
ISBN: 9781619026391
Publisher: Counterpoint

LESSONS FROM HEALTHCARE

First, shadow-working amateurs now infiltrate even highly trained professions like medicine. This shapes a new type of doctor–patient relationship that is more egalitarian, as it includes shared responsibility for medical decisions. (In the long run, this shift could diminish the number of malpractice lawsuits, as doctors shoulder less of the overall responsibility for treatment.)

Second, taking responsibility for treatment decisions engenders shadow work for patients. The newly empowered patients who want to negotiate with their doctors about whether to take statins for cholesterol tend to bone up on the topic by searching the Internet, especially sites like Wikipedia and WebMD. Doctors, too, consult Wikipedia, which to some extent gives them a base of information they share with their patients.

Third, Wikipedia and other online medical sources have now reached a fairly impressive level of sophistication in the data they provide. Yet all such sites suffer from inaccuracy and distortions introduced by commercial interests. The untrained medical patient is less equipped than the professional to separate valid information from canards. Furthermore, the lay user may be overly impressed by splashy presentations like YouTube videos, which physicians might more readily put in perspective.

Fourth, shadow-working patients now also perform a wide range of diagnostic and treatment procedures on themselves, outside any healthcare facility. These include even quite complex protocols like daily intravenous infusions. Various businesses have appeared to support such patients with professional help, usually with employees trained at the paramedic level rather than licensed doctors and nurses. The rational move is hiring people with enough training (but no more) to administer the prescribed medical intervention. Quite often, that level of training is none at all—and the people in question are shadow-working patients.

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