Doctoral Dissertation Research: The U.S. Lyme Disease Controversy: Medical Knowledge, Biopolitics, and the Environment

在Marcia C博士的指导下，耶鲁大学博士生Abigail Dumes将研究围绕莱姆病在美国的诊断和治疗的争议。特别是，研究人员将调查为什么，在一个“循证医学”的新时代（即，范式转变向科学标准化的生物医学实践），有两个紧急标准的护理莱姆病和这些标准的护理可能如何与政治权力和理解的自然环境。这项研究将在18个月内进行，主要在康涅狄格州，在莱姆病患者，医生和科学家中进行。研究人员将通过多种方法收集定性数据，包括参与者观察，非结构化和半结构化访谈，疾病叙述的启发，以及与莱姆病相关的流行，学术和虚拟媒体的收集。这些数据将使研究人员能够探索：1）循证医学与生物医学知识的生产和实践之间的关系; 2）对莱姆病诊断和治疗的政治监管的态度;以及3）改变对自然环境的理解，因为它们影响并受到对这种疾病的理解的影响。这项研究很重要，因为循证医学越来越多地决定了如何做出公共卫生决策。因此，一项探讨循证医学如何为莱姆病患者、医生和科学家提供知识生产和实践的研究，将对其他传染病的研究产生广泛的比较影响。这项研究的结果也可能改善莱姆病患者的医疗保健，并帮助政策制定者制定指导方针。

Under the guidance of Dr. Marcia C. Inhorn, Yale University doctoral student Abigail Dumes will examine the controversy that surrounds the diagnosis and treatment of Lyme disease in the United States. In particular, the researcher will investigate why, in a new era of "evidence-based medicine" (i.e., the paradigmatic shift toward the scientific standardization of biomedical practice), there are two emergent standards of care for Lyme disease and how these standards of care may be related to political power and understandings of the natural environment. The research will be conducted over 18 months, primarily in Connecticut, among Lyme disease patients, physicians, and scientists. The researcher will collect qualitative data through a variety of methods, including participant observation, unstructured and semi-structured interviews, elicitation of illness narratives, and the collection of popular, academic, and virtual media related to Lyme disease. These data will allow the researcher to explore: 1) the relationship between evidence-based medicine and the production and practice of biomedical knowledge; 2) attitudes toward the political regulation of Lyme diagnosis and treatment; and 3) changing understandings of the natural environment, as they affect and are affected by understandings of this disease. This research is important because evidence-based medicine increasingly determines how public health decisions are made. Therefore, a study that explores how evidence-based medicine informs knowledge production and practice among Lyme disease patients, physicians, and scientists will have broad comparative implications for studies of other infectious diseases. Findings from this research may also improve health care for patients with Lyme disease and help policymakers develop guidelines.