NSF East Asia and Pacific Summer Institute (EAPSI) for FY 2013 in Australia

Chiou Howard, Atlanta GA

Investigators

Abstract

This action funds Howard Chiou of Emory University to conduct a research project in the Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences area during the summer of 2013 at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia. The project title is "Investigating How Cultures of Western Biomedicine are Changing from a Focus on Individuals to Teams in Australia." The host scientist is Dr. Lenore Manderson. Western biomedicine is rapidly changing--shifting from older models that emphasize the autonomy of individual caregivers towards interdisciplinary teams. This project constructs a comparative ethnography of physicians and nurses working within a team-based care model implemented in both Australia and the United States. Through grounded analyses of ethnographic participant observation and in-depth interviews, the effects of this new emphasis on local hierarchies, nurse-physician relationships, and medical authority can begin to be determined. This data connects small group dynamics on a hospital unit with the greater institutions of the hospital and biomedicine, furthering our knowledge of biomedicine as both bureaucracy and institution. This knowledge will help expand theory on the sociological structure of biomedicine, and ultimately inform the anthropology of biomedicine as a complex and international human phenomenon. Broader impacts of an EAPSI fellowship include providing the Fellow a first-hand research experience outside the U.S.; an introduction to the science, science policy, and scientific infrastructure of the respective location; and an orientation to the society, culture and language. These activities meet the NSF goal to educate for international collaborations early in the career of its scientists, engineers, and educators, thus ensuring a globally aware U.S. scientific workforce. Furthermore, this project will form an important component of a doctoral thesis that will be disseminated to a variety of audiences, including both anthropologists and policymakers, through publication or presentation at academic conferences. The Fellow will also organize a half-day symposium on the anthropology of hospitals as institutions, facilitating both local and international collaborations on the topic, and also participate in teleconferences at both Monash University and University of Warwick (UK) with students and researchers from multiple disciplines. Finally, the project plan includes focus groups to discuss initial findings with research informants, increasing engagement with local non-academic communities.