Medical Research and the Production of Reliable Data

The Difficulties of a Randomised Clinical Trial Confronted with Real Life in Southern Niger

Bibliographic Data

ID22169355
AuthorsMamane Sani Souley Issoufou (Université Abdou Moumouni, corresponding author)
Year2023
Volume5
Issue1
Pages11-23
Publication date2023-09-14
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Humanitarian Affairs (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 2515-6411 • E-ISSN: 2515-6411
PublisherManchester University Press (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.7227/jha.099
OpenAlexW4386698803
LanguageEN
References cited9

This article describes and analyses the tensions linked to the flaws in the system of a randomised clinical trial conducted by Epicentre, an epidemiological research centre created by the non-governmental organisation Médecins Sans Frontières, in southern Niger. It presents an ethnography of the practice of therapeutic experimentation in the context of a clinical trial in which we observe the meticulousness of a set of monitored practices, framed by a bureaucracy and a hierarchy specific to the medical profession, intended to reduce bias as much as possible in order to produce reliable data. Based on an ethnographic survey with the combined use of participant observations (interviews as part of the real-time follow-up of this clinical trial), this article is part of the literature of Science and Technology Studies (STS), which consists in describing the science in the making (Callon, 1986, 2003; Latour and Woolgar, 2006; Pestre, 2010). It shows the difficulties of a trial that has not taken into account the local contexts of its implementation, the ‘real life’ and its unexpected effects

Bureaucracy · Clinical Practice · Clinical trial · Engineering ethics · Ethnography · Hierarchy · Medical education · Participant observation · Political science · Public relations · Social science · Sociology · Computer Science · Engineering · History · Law · Medicine · Nursing · Viral Infections and Outbreaks Research

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Open DOIOpen Access