書訊：East Asian Medicine into Contemporary Healthcare @ 歷史學X醫療史新時代

版主：Volker Scheid編輯的新書，除了有歷史的關懷，也有臨床發展的思考。

East Asian
Medicine into Contemporary Healthcare

Volker
Scheid and Hugh MacPhersonIntegrating (Editor)

Paperback: 256 pages

Publisher: Churchill Livingstone; 1 edition
(December 20, 2011)

Language: English

Book Description

Traditional
East Asian healthcare systems have moved rapidly from the fringes of healthcare
systems in the West towards the centre over the past 50 years. This change of
status for traditional medicines presents their practitioners with both
opportunities and challenges as the focus shifts from one of opposition towards
one of integration into biomedically dominated healthcare systems.

Integrating
East Asian Medicine into Contemporary Healthcare examines the opportunities and
challenges of integrating East Asian medicine into Western healthcare systems
from an interdisciplinary perspective. Volker Scheid and Hugh MacPherson bring
together contributions from acknowledged experts from a number of different
disciplines - including clinical researchers, Chinese Medicine practitioners,
historians, medical anthropologists, experts in the social studies of science,
technology and medicine - to examine and debate the impact of the
evidence-based medicine movement on the ongoing modernization of East Asian
medicines. The book considers the following questions:

.What are
the values, goals and ethics implicit within traditional East Asian medical
practices? . What claims to effectiveness and safety are made by East Asian
medical practices?

.What is
at stake in subjecting these medical practices to biomedical models of
evaluation?

. What
constitutes best practice? How is it to be defined and measured? . What are the
ideologies and politics behind the process of integration of East Asian medical
practices into modern health care systems?

. What
can we learn from a variety of models of integration into contemporary
healthcare?

Volker
Scheid and Hugh MacPherson‘s Integrating East Asian Medicine into
Contemporary Healthcare (Churchill Livingstone,
2011) is the result of a wonderfully transdisciplinary project that aims to
bring scholars and practitioners of East Asian medicine together in a common
dialogue that also informs and is shaped by cutting-edge work in Science
Studies. Not a typical conference volume, the book is instead the result of
years of continuing collaboration among the editors and authors, and celebrates
the spirit of collaborative work in every aspect of its structure and material.
The chapters collectively explore some key ideas that thread through the work
and are of broad relevance to the histories and practices of health and
healing: the nature of “authenticity” in alternative and complementary health
practices; the problem of standardization; learning through best practices and
best practitioners; and the changing and plural nature of evidence and proof in
the contemporary world. The material covered in the book is extended and
deepened in a series of vignettes that each illustrate exemplary phenomena,
texts, settings, or concepts relevant to the chapters in which they are
embedded.

I had the
opportunity to speak with both co-editors about the book, the larger
intellectual and practical goals that inform it, and the history and potential
futures of their collaboration. It was a very enjoyable conversation about a
fascinating project, and I hope you’ll enjoy!

* A quick
note: You’ll notice that there’s an echo on this one due to a rare circumstance
with a three-way Skype call during which not all participants had earphones
handy. Because there was a lot of good material, we decided to post it
regardless of the echo. Apologies for that! We’re working on trying to reduce
the incidence of this kind of audio issue for future interviews, to the extent
possible. Thanks for listening!