Interactive case reports: a case in point

• Autores: Magdalena Murawska
• Localización: Languaging experiences: Learning and teaching revisited / coord. por Hadrian Lankiewicz, Emilia Wasikiewicz-Firlej, 2014, ISBN 978-1-4438-5341-5, págs. 95-115
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • The aim of this paper is to present an interactive variety of medical case report and to point to its potential to serve as the basis for a new model of the genre that would adopt the patient's perspective. Introduced by the British Medical Journal a few years ago both as a teaching and learning tool, it is a series of case reports devoted to one particular topic, published in subsequent issues, starting with case presentation, through case progress to case outcome. Apart from the inclusion of readers' responses and comments submitted in the course of treatment, interactive case reports contain the patient's account, which appears in the third part.

    The present article will focus on patient-centred elements of interactive case reports, i.e. the aforementioned patient's voice (subjective and lay perceptions) as well as the enhanced status of the patient in the doctor 's contribution (patient 's textual visibility and acknowledgement of the experience of illness), which will be illustrated with the examples from authentic interactive case reports and regular case reports with the Patient 's perspective section. Finally, it will be discussed what value this model may have for its potential users, both in the ESP context, where the importance of written communication in medical practice is argued for, as well as in doctor-patient relations. As regards the latter, it is believed that such a case report can be beneficial both to doctors in the development of compassion towards patients and to patients who become active participants in the process of diagnosis and treatment. By making sense of patients' personal accounts doctors may receive a potentially new and valuable source of information and modify their approach towards the treated. This way, it is possible to discuss the model with reference 10 an ecological approach to language.