reductionism revisited
DESCRIPTION
a talk for the philosophy & ethics SIG 2011TRANSCRIPT
Reductionism revisited
Reductionism:
•understanding the nature of complex things
by reducing them to simpler or more
fundamental things
•a philosophical position that a complex
system is only the sum of its parts
http://www.medical-answers.org/hd/index.php?t=Reductionist
“The night before I got married I tried to make a rational
analysis, reasons for and reasons against......
....but it was a stupid exercise, because no equation of reasons
could even begin to describe the situation.
How is love to be reduced to a series of propositions?
In truth, what binds people together – as a couple or as a
society – always exceeds the reach of a purely rational
analysis.”
Giles Fraser, Guardian, 30 April 2011
“capitalism ... wishes to pursue the maximum
returns on its investment.
To that end it exerts great pressure to turn human beings and nature into commodities.”
The Observer, 24.4.11 http://gu.com/p/2zjbg
Reductionist developments have impoverished the mental health services.
Providing high quality care is reduced to meeting targets;
professionalism is reduced to competences;diagnostic assessment is reduced to assessing needs
and risk;
clinician-patient relationships are reduced to an assembly line model where functional teams provide ‘client-centred’ but fragmented and impersonal care.
The current emphasis on health rather than illness, ... ‘recovery’ rather than
treatments represents ‘magical thinking’ in attempts to deny the existence of
‘madness’ [chronic pain].
These manoeuvres also help to tidy away the suffering and emotional pain of the
mentally ill person [chronic pain patient].
St John-Smith et al, RCPsych 2009
LEAN, NICE, EBM, RCTs and research methodologies
There is a good deal of criticism of evidence based medicine, which is suspected of being a tool not so much for medical science as for health managers
Its main appeal is to health economists, policymakers and managers, to whom it appears useful for measuring performance and rationing resources.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evidence-based_medicine
Lean is medicine for healthcare(no patients mentioned)
Healthcare is full of committed, highly trained and motivated staff who struggle daily to work with broken, wasteful and disconnected
systems and processes.
Lean techniques have many of the solutions to sort out, repair and align these processes to organisational objectives.
The solutions themselves come from within the teams working in the systems and processes.
http://www.leanhealthcareacademy.co.uk/how_can_it_help
LEAN, NICE, EBM, RCTs and research methodologies
Instead of changing it, Lean unfortunately reinforced management in its current paradigm.
As such it represents the further industrialisation of service, with effects that can only be deleterious.
http://www.systemsthinking.co.uk/6-How-lean-became-mean-final.pdf
LEAN, NICE, EBM, RCTs and research methodologies
focus on relationships in service organisations delivers levels of performance improvement that most people wouldn’t dare dream of –
something far beyond the capacity of any commercial toolkit to deliver, even one that calls itself ‘lean’.
(Professor John Seddon)http://www.systemsthinking.co.uk/6-How-lean-became-mean-final.pdf
LEAN, NICE, EBM, RCTs and research methodologies
NICE works with experts ... as well as patients and carers.
We make independent decisions in an open, transparent way,
based on the best available evidence and including input from experts and interested parties.
(how is it obtained?)
LEAN, NICE, EBM, RCTs and research methodologies
NHS Evidence ... provides everyone ...access to a wealth of quality information and best practice
so that every care decision made can be based on the best possible evidence.
(how is it obtained?)
http://www.nice.org.uk/aboutnice/
LEAN, NICE, EBM, RCTs and research methodologies
The first step of EBM:
translation of uncertainty to an answerable
question
the question should be phrased to facilitate
searching for a precise answer.
http://www.cebm.net/index.aspx?o=1914
LEAN, NICE, EBM, RCTs and research methodologies
EBM ‘not always RCT’
But ‘ecological’ studies ranked 2c in hierarchy
of evidence
Quantitative research is generally made
using scientific methods, which can include:
developing instruments /methods for
measurement.
control and manipulation of variables.
collection, modelling and analysis of empirical data.
The null hypothesis, H0, is an essential part of any research design, and is
always tested, even indirectly. http://www.experiment-resources.com/null-hypothesis.html#ixzz1LNCWawK0
Alternative terms for the traditional research paradigm are:
quantitative, scientific, experimental, hard, reductionist, prescriptive,
psychometric
http://www.postgrad_resources.btinternet.co.uk/student-resources11qual-quant.htm
The traditional research paradigm relies on
numerical (i.e. quantitative) data and
mathematical or statistical treatment of
that data.
The 'truth' that is uncovered is thus
grounded in mathematical logic. http://www.postgrad_resources.btinternet.co.uk/student-resources11qual-quant.htm
most of us are happy to accept uncritically simplified, reductionist, and blatantly
incorrect statements so long as they contain at least one number
Greenhalgh, BMJ 1997
Qualitative research:
aims to gather an in-depth understanding of human behaviour and the reasons that
govern such behaviour.
In qualitative research the possibility of the researcher taking a 'neutral' position is
seen as more problematic.
Qualitative researchers are exhorted to reflect on their role in the research process
and make this clear in the analysis.
a reductionist approach isolates variables and
establishes relationships between them,
qualitative methods
examine how variables interact to become systems
which cannot be completely understood from
looking only at the sum of the parts.
There is ample evidence that the legitimacy and usefulness of qualitative research is no
longer questioned by most prominent scholars in administrative and organization
science. (January 2011)
http://gsbapps.stanford.edu/researchpapers/library/RP2045R.pdf
Fig 1 Percentage of research in BMJ that is qualitative, 1994 to 3 September 2010.
Paley J , Lilford R BMJ 2011;342:bmj.d424
©2011 by British Medical Journal Publishing Group
No mention of qualitative research methods
Researchers who use qualitative methods seek a
deeper truth.
They attempt to make sense of, or interpret,
phenomena in terms of the meanings people bring
to them,
adopting “a holistic perspective which preserves
the complexities of human behaviour.”
Greenhalgh, BMJ 1997
Qualitative researchers aim to gather an in-depth
understanding of human behaviour and the reasons
that govern human behaviour.
Various aspects of behaviour could be based on
deeply held values, personal perspectives,
experiences and contextual circumstances.
http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/gim/research/method/qual.html
Here are a few important research questions in
emergency medicine-
Should we allow relatives to witness resuscitation?
Are patients reassured by negative tests?
What makes working in emergency medicine stressful?
Are patients satisfied with the emergency care they
receive?
What is the effect of consultant shop-floor presence?
These questions cannot be answered very
satisfactorily by our familiar quantitative
methods (counting and measuring). They
require a deeper understanding of attitudes,
experience and behaviour. We therefore need to
use a different research methodology -
QUALITATIVE RESEARCH.http://www.collemergencymed.ac.uk/CEM/Research/technical_guide/qual.htm
Positivism and Reductionism
Positivism: "the view that all true knowledge is scientific, and that
all things are ultimately measurable.
"entities of one kind... are reducible to entities of another,”
"processes are reducible to physiological, physical or chemical events,“
"social processes are reducible to relationships between and actions of individuals,“
Is there a philosophical difference between
quantitative and qualitative research?
Positivism Constructivism
Single tangible reality, fragmented into variables
Multiple constructed realities
The inquirer and the object of inquiry are independent.
Knower and known are inseparable.
Every action can be explained as the result of a cause.
Cause and effect are interlinked.
Inquiry is value free. Inquiry is value bound.
Inquiry is experimental and quantitative.
Inquiry is mainly qualitative and interpretive.
It is impossible, without further inquiry, to rely on what people say about themselves, their experience, or their interpretations of
what has happened to them.
Paley & Lilford, BMJ, 342: 30 April 2011
the assumption being that there is a single verifiable truth
Understanding the context in which people
live is essential.
Qualitative researchers need to identify their
own contexts so that they understand how
their own views and beliefs may influence the
interactions they have with their participants.
Kuper, Reeves & Levinson, BMJ 2008; 337:a288
People understand the world differently, this
informs their beliefs, attitudes, intentions and
actions.
Understanding these differences is sometimes a
matter of listening rather than counting.
Which is why history-taking is still important.
http://www.bmj.com/content/342/bmj.d424.full/reply#bmj_el_250051
positivists may argue that "if you can't measure
it it's not worth studying";
their own problem is that if you can measure it,
it's inevitably simplified and is therefore
probably not "it".
http://www.bmj.com/content/342/bmj.d424.full/reply#bmj_el_250051
Conventional investigations do not reveal the cause of pain -
diagnostic joint blocks and CT discography can provide a diagnosis:
15- 40% of patients have zygapophysial joint pain, 20% have sacroiliac joint pain
>40% have internal disc disruption
Management of chronic low back painNikolai Bogduk
MJA 2004; 180 (2): 79-83
Reductionism in chronic pain – alive and kicking
Fitness to work – a reductionist paradigm?
Many clients with serious health conditions have been found fit for work, including those
with multiple sclerosis, terminal cancer, bipolar disorder, severe depression, and
agoraphobia.
BMJ 2011; 342
The comfort of reductionism
Certainty offers security
The illusion of “absolute truth”
The illusion that the right doctor will find the right
answer (and thus a cure)
One day we will know ‘it’ all and have all the answers.
Divide each difficulty into as many parts as is feasible and necessary to resolve it.
Rene Descartes
The whole is more than the sum of its parts.
Aristotle
the love of complexity without reductionism makes art
the love of complexity with reductionism makes science
Edward O Wilson