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

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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.