Hearts in their hands—Physicians' gestures embodying shared professional knowledge around the world
Dados Bibliográficos
| AUTOR(ES) | |
|---|---|
| AFILIAÇÃO(ÕES) | School of Public Affairs and Academy of Social Governance Zhejiang University Zhejiang China, Department of Cardiology Peking Union Medical College Hospital Beijing China, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration Institute of Healthcare Management University of Duisburg‐Essen Duisburg Germany, Faculty of Social Sciences Institute of Sociology University of Duisburg‐Essen Duisburg Nordrhein‐Westfalen Germany, RDC Qualiservice/SOCIUM University of Bremen Bremen Germany, Department of Cardiology University Medical Center Groningen Groningen The Netherlands, Faculty of Medicine Office of the Dean of Education University of Rostock Rostock Mecklenburg‐Vorpommern Germany, Hacettepe University Faculty of Nursing, Ankara, Turkey, University of Hamburg Department of British and American Studies Von‐Melle‐Park 6 20146 Hamburg Germany, Social Psychology, University of Groningen, Netherlands, Faculty of Medicine University of Duisburg‐Essen Duisburg Nordrhein‐Westfalen Germany, Department of Clinical Research & Epidemiology Comprehensive Heart Failure Center and Department Internal Medicine I University Hospital Würzburg Würzburg Bayern Germany, Outpatient Department of Cardiology Cardio‐Praxis Bochum Nordrhein‐Westfalen Germany, Department of Anesthesiology University Medical Center Groningen Groningen The Netherlands |
| ANO | 2023 |
| TIPO | Artigo |
| PERIÓDICO | Sociology of Health and Illness |
| ISSN | 0141-9889 |
| E-ISSN | 1467-9566 |
| EDITORA | Sage Publications (United States) |
| DOI | 10.1111/1467-9566.13639 |
| ADICIONADO EM | 2025-08-18 |
Resumo
The biomedical approach to medical knowledge is widely accepted around the world. This article considers whether the incorporated aspects of physician‐patient interaction have become similarly common across the globe by comparing the gestures that physicians use in their interactions with patients. Up to this point, there has been little research on physicians' use of gestures in health‐care settings. We explore how—in four university hospitals in Turkey, the People's Republic of China, The Netherlands and Germany—physicians use gesture in their discussions with simulated patients about the condition of heart failure. Our analysis confirms the importance of gestures for organising both the personal interaction and the knowledge transfer between physician and patient. From the perspective of global comparison, it is notable that physicians in all four hospitals used similar gestures. This demonstrates the globality of biomedical knowledge in an embodied mode. Physicians used gestures for a range of purposes, including to convey the idea of an 'anatomical map' and for constructing visual models of (patho‐)physiological processes. Since biomedical language is rife with metaphor, it was not surprising that we also identified an accompanying metaphorical gesture which has a similar form in the various locations that were part of the study.