Items related to Magnetic Appeal: MRI and the Myth of Transparency

Magnetic Appeal: MRI and the Myth of Transparency - Softcover

Joyce, Kelly

 
9780801474569: Magnetic Appeal: MRI and the Myth of Transparency
Softcover
ISBN 10: 0801474566 ISBN 13: 9780801474569
Publisher: Cornell University Press, 2008

Synopsis

Magnetic Resonance Imaging, not so long ago a diagnostic tool of last resort, has become pervasive in the landscape of consumer medicine; images of the forbidding tubes, with their promises of revelation, surround us in commercials and on billboards. Magnetic Appeal offers an in-depth exploration of the science and culture of MRI, examining its development and emergence as an imaging technology, its popular appeal and acceptance, and its current use in health care. Understood as modern and uncontroversial by health care professionals and in public discourse, the importance of MRI―or its supposed infallibility―has rarely been questioned.

In Magnetic Appeal, Kelly A. Joyce shows how MRI technology grew out of serendipitous circumstances and was adopted for reasons having little to do with patient safety or evidence of efficacy. Drawing on interviews with physicians and MRI technologists, as well as ethnographic research conducted at imaging sites and radiology conferences, Joyce demonstrates that current beliefs about MRI draw on cultural ideas about sight and technology and are reinforced by health care policies and insurance reimbursement practices. Moreover, her unsettling analysis of physicians' and technologists' work practices lets readers consider that MRI scans do not reveal the truth about the body as is popularly believed, nor do they always lead to better outcomes for patients. Although clearly a valuable medical technique, MRI technology cannot necessarily deliver the health outcomes ascribed to it.

Magnetic Appeal also addresses broader questions about the importance of medical imaging technologies in American culture and medicine. These technologies, which include ultrasound, X-ray, and MRI, are part of a larger trend in which visual representations have become central to American health, identity, and social relations.

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About the Author

Kelly A. Joyce is Assistant Professor of Sociology at the College of William and Mary.

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Publisher
Cornell University Press
Publication date
2008
Language
English
ISBN 10 
0801474566
ISBN 13 
9780801474569
Binding
Paperback
Number of pages
208