title: Patients' uses of information as researchable domains of social     practice.
abstract: In this article we argue that research into information for patients has to extend beyond            an evaluation of particular information resources to studies of how those resources are            engaged with, made sense of and used in practice. We draw on empirical data collected in            the course of a study of a patient information resource designed for breast cancer            patients in Liverpool and Newcastle in order to demonstrate the limitations of a            restricted focus on information resources alone - namely, that it does not take into            account the specific ways in which information is incorporated within what patients do as            the grounds of 'further inference and action'. Our interest is less in discussing the            strengths and weaknesses of this particular resource than in explicating some neglected            aspects of the commonplace ways in which patients 'work' with information. We conclude by            sketching some broad features of those 'reading' and 'linking' practices, the study of            which, we believe, would help us as researchers to explicate the 'problem of information'            as it is actually encountered and resolved by patients in realworld settings for their own            practical purposes. Taking our lead from ethnomethodological studies and related research            in various fields, we argue patients' uses of information are social practices that can            and should be treated as researchable phenomena.
authors.affiliation: Sociology, Social Policy and Criminology, University of Liverpool, UK. michael.mair@liverpool.ac.uk
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Mair
authors.forename: Ciara
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Kierans
mesh_terms: D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006295:Health Resources; D006801:Humans; D016247:Information Storage and Retrieval / Q000379:methods*; D012944:Social Support