Expert medical decisions in occupational medicine: a sociological analysis of medical judgment

Abstract

An ethnographic study of expert medical decisions in the field of occupational medicine explores the doctor's role in the attribution of rights to sick people. Two ‘frames’ are displayed: the ‘clinical frame’ and the ‘solicitude frame’. It is demonstrated how these correspond to the status of conditions in medical work doctrines. Then, it is shown how the ‘psychosomatic frame’ displaces the treatment of physical complaints, and how the clinical and solicitude frame exert their presence again in the psychic domain. The meaning of these results for expert medical judgments is discussed, considering comparable work in other areas of medicine. Copyright © 1994, Wiley Blackwell. All rights reserved