Treatment Recommendations in Oncology Visits: A conversation analytic approach

• In Event: 101 - Regular Session. Conversation Analysis

Abstract

In studies on physician-patient interaction, decision-making and decisional authority in the clinical encounter have undergone many different investigations over time. Recently, conversation analytic scholars have systematically explored the range of actions used to make treatment decisions in different clinical care settings by examining how treatment recommendations are made. Yet our empirical understanding of how decisions are made in cancer treatment is still limited. Using a conversation analytic approach first established by Stivers et al. (in press), this paper seeks to understand how treatment decisions are made between oncologist and patient by examining 41 video-recorded oncology visits. By examining various treatment recommendation types and related clinical contexts, this paper teases apart the shared decision-making (SDM) paradigm by scrutinizing the ways in which oncologists orient to patient agency in different decision types.

Author

• Alexandra Tate, UCLA