Awards
- Winner of Winner of the 2010 Eliot Freidson Outstanding Publ.
Overview
Magnetic Resonance Imaging, not so long ago a diagnostic tool of last resort, has become pervasive in the landscape of consumer medicine; images of the forbidding tubes, with their promises of revelation, surround us in commercials and on billboards. Magnetic Appeal offers an in-depth exploration of the science and culture of MRI, examining its development and emergence as an imaging technology, its popular appeal and acceptance, and its current use in health care. Understood as modern and uncontroversial by health care professionals and in public discourse, the importance of MRI-or its supposed infallibility-has rarely been questioned. In Magnetic Appeal, Kelly A. Joyce shows how MRI technology grew out of serendipitous circumstances and was adopted for reasons having little to do with patient safety or evidence of efficacy. Drawing on interviews with physicians and MRI technologists, as well as ethnographic research conducted at imaging sites and radiology conferences, Joyce demonstrates that current beliefs about MRI draw on cultural ideas about sight and technology and are reinforced by health care policies and insurance reimbursement practices. Moreover, her unsettling analysis of physicians' and technologists' work practices lets readers consider that MRI scans do not reveal the truth about the body as is popularly believed, nor do they always lead to better outcomes for patients. Although clearly a valuable medical technique, MRI technology cannot necessarily deliver the health outcomes ascribed to it. Magnetic Appeal also addresses broader questions about the importance of medical imaging technologies in American culture and medicine. These technologies, which include ultrasound, X-ray, and MRI, are part of a larger trend in which visual representations have become central to American health, identity, and social relations.
Full Product Details
Author: Kelly Joyce
Publisher: Cornell University Press
Imprint: Cornell University Press
Edition: 2nd Revised edition
Dimensions:
Width: 15.20cm
, Height: 1.60cm
, Length: 22.90cm
Weight: 0.454kg
ISBN: 9780801474569
ISBN 10: 0801474566
Pages: 208
Publication Date: 21 April 2008
Audience:
Professional and scholarly
,
Professional & Vocational
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active
Availability: In Print
This item will be ordered in for you from one of our suppliers. Upon receipt, we will promptly dispatch it out to you. For in store availability, please contact us.
Reviews
<p> Every chapter of Magnetic Appeal interrogates MRI from a different angle, each in turn questioning cultural assumptions in conjunction with the social, political, and economic relations that support and define the use of MRI. Taken together the chapters open a fascinating window into the realm of medical imaging technology. . . . A valuable read for those interested in medical technology, trends in healthcare, and science and technology studies, Magnetic Appeal brings to light the multiple factors that constitute our faith in medical technology. -Aleia Clark, Sociology of Health and Illness (Volume 31, Number 7, 2009)
Author Information
Kelly A. Joyce is Assistant Professor of Sociology at the College of William and Mary.
