Medical rationalization, cultural lag, and the malpractice crisis.
The theses of this paper are that (1) the practice of medicine has become more formally rationalized in the past century; (2) this rationalization process has been retarded by the professional aspects of medical practice, e.g., the service ethic and the medical profession's exclusive jurisdiction over medicine; (3) this retardation is evident in cultural lag between the development of medical knowledge and how medicine is practiced; and (4) the "malpractice crisis" is a particular force which is accelerating the rationalization process and is overcoming lag. Data from physician surveys and interviews are presented which show the utility of a rationalization-cultural lag model in generating a number of substantive questions pertinent to the quality of rationalized medical care.
D003675:Defensive Medicine; D003954:Diagnostic Services / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006801:Humans; D008318:Malpractice / Q000639:trends*; D010819:Physician's Role; D012380:Role; D013781:Texas