Social Issues in Diagnosis: An Introduction for Students and Clinicians

Understanding the social process of diagnosis is critical to improving doctor-patient relationships and health outcomes.

Diagnosis, the classification tool of medicine, serves an important social role. It confers social status on those who diagnose, and it impacts the social status of those diagnosed. Studying diagnosis from a sociological perspective offers clinicians and students a rich and sometimes provocative view of medicine and the cultures in which it is practiced. Social Issues in D...