CFP: Journal of Evaluation in Clinical Practice: Philosophy of Medicine and Health Care

Submission deadline: April 30, 2012

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The past few years have seen a resurgence of interest in the philosophy of medicine and health care.  Controversies about evidence, value, clinical knowledge, judgment, integrity and ethics have required practitioners and policy-makers to confront the epistemic and moral basis of practice, while philosophers have found in these debates ways to invigorate and reframe the investigation of long-standing philosophical problems, about the nature of reasoning, science, knowledge and practice, and the relationships between epistemology and ethics, morals and politics.

The Journal of Evaluation in Clinical Practice is an international journal that focuses on the evaluation and development of clinical practice in medicine, nursing and the allied health professions.  It has a large and diverse readership including practitioners and academics from a vast range of areas, and a tradition of publishing papers raising epistemological, metaphysical and ethical issues underlying clinical policy and practice.  Following the publication of two highly successful thematic issues in 2010 and 2011 on the philosophy of medicine and health care, we are seeking contributions to a third thematic edition, scheduled for publication in autumn 2012.  Papers are particularly welcome on the following themes.

1) Reasoning in Medicine. Possible questions/topics include: what is the role and what are the limitations of statistical reasoning in medicine? What alternative accounts of reasoning are available? If arguments are somehow at the core of medical reasoning, what are the sorts of argumentation skills we need to nurture in health care? What role do intuition and emotion play in a proper account of sound decision-making? How should we understand such ideas as judging, perceiving and interpreting and their role in reasoning in a range of contexts: clinical, policy, population/ public health?

2) Value, meaning and measurement. Possible questions/topics include: how do we represent meaning and value in health care and are our representations adequate? How do we account for the value of ‘unquantifiable’ aspects of these processes? What is the relationship between epistemology and ethics in discussions of value? What are the criteria used to assess health care? (Which ‘outcomes’? what counts as ‘quality’? How is health gain assessed and valued in relation to other aspects of the health care process/experience?) How do we defend expenditure on health care in the context of the current global environment?
However, we also welcome papers that do not fit neatly into one of these themes, but represent excellent examples of the application of philosophy to questions of substantive import in medicine and healthcare.

The deadline for submission of manuscripts is 30th April 2012.  Original papers are usually no more than 5000 words in length, and detailed author guidelines are available at http://www.wiley.com/bw/submit.asp?ref=1356-1294&site=1

Those interested in submitting a paper are invited to contact Dr Michael Loughlin: [email protected] ; Dr Vikki Entwistle: [email protected] or Dr Robyn Bluhm: [email protected]

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