Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2007 Sep;97(9):1563-71.
doi: 10.2105/AJPH.2006.086058. Epub 2007 Jul 31.

Redefining cancer during the interwar period: British medical officers of health, state policy, managerialism, and public health

Affiliations

Redefining cancer during the interwar period: British medical officers of health, state policy, managerialism, and public health

Rosa M Medina Domenech et al. Am J Public Health. 2007 Sep.

Abstract

The implementation of radiation technologies within the British hospital system was a significant element in the establishment of the managerial organization of medicine in the interwar period. One aspect of this implementation process was that, in order to install cancer patients within the "radiotherapy factory," British medical officers of health adapted their organizational cultures from being environmentalists to being administrators of medical services. One of the consequences of this change was the accomplishment of a much more reductive approach to cancer compared with a more holistic approach to the disease.

PubMed Disclaimer

References

    1. Welshman J, “The Medical Officer of Health in England and Wales, 1900–1974: Watchdog or Lapdog?” Journal of Public Health Medicine 19 (1997): 443–50. - PubMed
    1. Clarke J. and J. Newman, The Managerial State. Power, Politics and Ideology in the Remaking of Social Welfare (London: Sage, 1997).
    1. Porter TM, Trust in Numbers: The Pursuit of Objectivity in Science and Public Life (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1995). - PubMed
    1. Sturdy S. and R. Cooter, “Science, Scientific Management, and the Transformation of Medicine in Britain c. 1870–1950,” History of Science 36 (1998): 421–66. - PubMed
    1. Bridgman Perkins B., “Shaping Institution-Based Specialism: Early Twentieth Century Economic Organization of Medicine,” Social History of Medicine 10 (1995): 419–35; S. L. Madison, “Preserving Individualism in the Organizational Society: Cooperation and American Medical Practice, 1900–1920,” Bulletin of the History of Medicine 70 (1996): 442–83.

Publication types

LinkOut - more resources