Priscilla Song
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- May 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780691174778
- eISBN:
- 9781400885282
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691174778.003.0011
- Subject:
- Anthropology, Social and Cultural Anthropology
As Dr. Huang and the New Century staff members were busy devising new methods to document the effects of their experimental human olfactory ensheathing glial cell transplantation surgery, patients ...
More
As Dr. Huang and the New Century staff members were busy devising new methods to document the effects of their experimental human olfactory ensheathing glial cell transplantation surgery, patients and their families also developed their own ways of assessing whether the experimental procedure worked. This chapter focuses on how fetal cell recipients and their families have engaged questions of efficacy in the transnational realm of experimental medicine. Prospective transplantation candidates carefully parsed online reports of others' surgical experiences and analyzed the credibility of Chinese neurosurgeons' claims, while postoperative patients monitored their bodies for signs of difference and parsed these changes online. It is argued that the digitally mediated forms of knowledge they have produced offer a poignant challenge to what counts as expertise and data in the quest for “evidence” in experimental medicine.Less
As Dr. Huang and the New Century staff members were busy devising new methods to document the effects of their experimental human olfactory ensheathing glial cell transplantation surgery, patients and their families also developed their own ways of assessing whether the experimental procedure worked. This chapter focuses on how fetal cell recipients and their families have engaged questions of efficacy in the transnational realm of experimental medicine. Prospective transplantation candidates carefully parsed online reports of others' surgical experiences and analyzed the credibility of Chinese neurosurgeons' claims, while postoperative patients monitored their bodies for signs of difference and parsed these changes online. It is argued that the digitally mediated forms of knowledge they have produced offer a poignant challenge to what counts as expertise and data in the quest for “evidence” in experimental medicine.
Priscilla Song
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- May 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780691174778
- eISBN:
- 9781400885282
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691174778.003.0010
- Subject:
- Anthropology, Social and Cultural Anthropology
This chapter focuses on how Dr. Huang and his staff have contested international biomedical research protocols and devised new methods to assess the effectiveness of their experimental human ...
More
This chapter focuses on how Dr. Huang and his staff have contested international biomedical research protocols and devised new methods to assess the effectiveness of their experimental human olfactory ensheathing glial cell transplantation surgery. These strategies include developing improved measurement scales to capture post-surgical differences in bodily function and feeling; inviting foreign doctors to witness clinical procedures for themselves; conducting follow-up studies with former patients; and attempting to publish scientific reports in internationally credible journals. By examining the ways in which New Century clinicians have evaluated the effectiveness of the fetal cell transplantation procedure, this chapter raises key questions about the ethics and epistemology of clinical experimentation at the “cutting edge” of biomedical practice in contemporary China. It demonstrates how new modes of validation are emerging as viable alternatives to the hegemonic discourse of randomized controlled trials that has dominated the quest for “evidence” in experimental medicine.Less
This chapter focuses on how Dr. Huang and his staff have contested international biomedical research protocols and devised new methods to assess the effectiveness of their experimental human olfactory ensheathing glial cell transplantation surgery. These strategies include developing improved measurement scales to capture post-surgical differences in bodily function and feeling; inviting foreign doctors to witness clinical procedures for themselves; conducting follow-up studies with former patients; and attempting to publish scientific reports in internationally credible journals. By examining the ways in which New Century clinicians have evaluated the effectiveness of the fetal cell transplantation procedure, this chapter raises key questions about the ethics and epistemology of clinical experimentation at the “cutting edge” of biomedical practice in contemporary China. It demonstrates how new modes of validation are emerging as viable alternatives to the hegemonic discourse of randomized controlled trials that has dominated the quest for “evidence” in experimental medicine.
