title: The rings around Jonathan's eyes: HIV/AIDS medicine at the margins of administration.
abstract: In this article I explore how a medical protocol is encountered by a doctor practicing in a South African setting. I examine how the attempt at standardizing medical services is simultaneously challenged and upheld within medical practice by illustrating the cognitivist assumptions upon which standardizing medical decision making is based, and showing how this is a product of a particular history of thought. This is challenged by the practice of medicine. I then explore the ethical implications of standardization. The case studies demonstrate that relationships between doctors and patients do not fit necessarily into the pre-established categories created by protocols.
authors.affiliation: Department of Sociology and Social Anthropology, Stellenbosch University, South Africa. olhuman@gmail.com
authors.forename: Oliver
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Human
mesh_terms: D000163:Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome / Q000188:drug therapy*; D003657:Decision Making; D015658:HIV Infections / Q000188:drug therapy*; D006801:Humans; D008128:Logic; D008297:Male; D011216:Practice Management, Medical / Q000592:standards*; D013019:South Africa