Sociologie na poli medicíny a zdravotnictví – cizinec nebo vetřelec?

Medical sociology is a discipline that applies sociological perceptions, theoretical approaches and empirical methods to the study of healthcare issues. Modern medicine is one of the key symbols of modern society and its achievements in terms of human intervention in nature. A sociologist studying healthcare issues faces certain specific problems deriving from the socio-cultural framework of modern medicine and the natural sciences in general. By pursuing sociology in medicine he may lose his identity and autonomy, but by pursuing sociology of medicine he may tend to study issues perceived as irrelevant by healthcare experts. Being a „stranger“ in the field of medicine may, however, mean that a sociologist can contribute to the articulation of new problems as public matters or social problems. He may also be perceived as a representative of the lay perception of healthcare issues. Both quantitative and qualitative models are used in this field, mostly in a process of triangulation that gives a fuller and more truthful idea of reality from the perspectives of different actors. Although the natural sciences are the basis of medical knowledge and skills, medicine is also a symbolic world with its own culture, values and norms.