Rethinking value construction in biomedicine and healthcare

Saheli Datta Burton, Katharina Kieslich, Katharina Theresa Paul, Gabrielle Samuel & Barbara Prainsack wrote an article for the journal BioSocieties (Palgrave Macmillan) about value construction in biomedicine and healthcare.

Abstract:

Despite longstanding attempts to conceptualise and measure value in biomedicine and healthcare, there is no single agreed definition of what value is. Instead, and as such, value is often taken as given or constructed in economic terms. In this paper, we argue that taking the meaning of value as given, or reverting to technocratic or economic dimensions of value, obscures the non-technical and societal dimensions of value construction and operationalisation in healthcare and biomedical practices. Through a comparative study of five cases of biomedicine and healthcare, we aim to bring out the socioeconomic and political processes that make a thing valuable for society and its implications. Our contention is that a clearer understanding of what makes something valuable (or not) is the first step towards what socially reflexive and responsible valuing of biomedicine and healthcare ought to be.

Citation:

Datta Burton, S., Kieslich, K., Paul, K.T. et al. Rethinking value construction in biomedicine and healthcare. BioSocieties (2021). doi.org/10.1057/s41292-020-00220-6

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