At the margins of biomedicine

The ambiguous position of 'Registered Medical Practitioners' in rural Indian healthcare

Datos Bibliográficos

ID2249223
AutoresPapreen Nahar (0000-0002-5817-8093, Centre for Primary Care Institute of Population Health University of Manchester UK), N K Kannuri (0000-0003-2352-6972, Indian Institute of Public Health Gandhinagar), Sitamma Mikkilineni (0000-0002-5711-918X, IBS Hyderabad India), G V S Murthy (0000-0002-5695-866X, Indian Institute of Public Health Hyderabad India), Peter Phillimore (0000-0001-7083-2492, Sociology School of Geography, Politics & Sociology Newcastle University UK, autor de correspondencia)
Año2017
Volumen39
Número4
Páginas614-628
Fecha de publicación2017-05-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaSociology of Health & Illness (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0141-9889 • E-ISSN: 1467-9566
EditorialWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/1467-9566.12521
PMID27910120
OpenAlexW2557849299
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas8
Referencias citadas31

This analysis challenges a tendency in public health and the social sciences to associate India's medical pluralism with a distinction between biomedicine, as a homogeneous entity, and its non-biomedical 'others'. We argue that this overdrawn dichotomy obscures the important part played by 'informal' biomedical practice, an issue with salience well beyond India. Based on a qualitative study in rural Andhra Pradesh, South India, we focus on a figure little discussed in the academic literature - the Registered Medical Practitioner (RMP) - who occupies a niche in the medical market-place as an informal exponent of biomedical treatment. We explore the significance of these practitioners by tracking diagnosis and treatment of one increasingly prominent medical 'condition', namely diabetes. The RMP, who despite the title is rarely registered, sheds light on the supposed formal-informal sector divide in India's healthcare system, and its permeability in practice. We develop our analysis by contrasting two distinctive conceptualisations of 'informality' in relation to the state in India - one Sarah Pinto's, the other Ananya Roy's

Biomedicine · Epistemology · Health care · Medical anthropology · Pluralism (philosophy · Political science · Salience (neuroscience · Social science · Sociology · Global Public Health Policies and Epidemiology · Healthcare Systems and Reforms · Law · Psychology · Social and Economic Development in India