Resumen de Patient-centred case reporting: state of the art
A case is one of the basic concepts in medicine and sharing information about new cases of diseases belongs to the oldest forms of medical communication. In this chapter, the state of the art of research on the genres of medical case reporting is discussed. In detail, two perspectives are adopted. On the one hand, its definition as well as history are provided in order to demonstrate the evolution of the genres as a result of developing medicine and changing intellectual thought styles.
Moreover, the case report, along with other case-related genres, is presented to point to its characteristic features, the most important one being that it is relatively patient-focused in that it reports a particular case of a disease in a given patient. This fact allows it to be studied within the patient-centred models of medical practice. Additionally, approaches from which researchers have studied it so far are demonstrated. These include: qualitative, quantitative and linguistic approaches as well as drawing on other disciplines such as literary studies, ethnography or ethics. Some problematic areas regarding the linguistic aspects of the genres are also pointed to. It has been shown that the genres of medical case reporting feature an effaced discourse in which cases are studied and diseases are managed, and thus abstracting from the patient. At this point, some solutions proposed by researchers to remedy this situation are demonstrated, addressing the issues of how patients are referred to and which information is given priority. Finally, recent developments of the genre of case reports are presented. These are new features which reflect the changes taking place in medical practice where medical knowledge is becoming increasingly accessible to a lay audience and open to perspectives other than that of a doctor. Thus, the chapter focuses on a group of genres of the specialised discourse of medicine, both from the micro-perspective, i.e., the language used, as well as from the macro-perspective, i.e., the contextual factors guiding its evolution. It also shows how the study of medical discourse may draw on other disciplines and, in turn, how linguistic analyses may inform medical practice. Finally, the chapter points to the importance of patient reference in written medical discourse, as opposed to the oral one, which has attracted keen interest in broadly understood health communication research.
