Stivers-Timmermans2016

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Stivers-Timmermans2016
BibType ARTICLE
Key Stivers-Timmermans2016
Author(s) Tanya Stivers, Stefan Timmermans
Title Negotiating the diagnostic uncertainty of genomic test results
Editor(s)
Tag(s) EMCA, Medical, Doctor-patient interaction, Genetic counseling, Counseling, Medical EMCA
Publisher
Year 2016
Language English
City
Month
Journal Social Psychology Quarterly
Volume 79
Number 3
Pages 199–221
URL Link
DOI 10.1177/0190272516658770
ISBN
Organization
Institution
School
Type
Edition
Series
Howpublished
Book title
Chapter

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Abstract

Clinicians order next-generation genomic testing to address diagnostic uncertainty about the cause of a patient’s symptoms. Based on video-recorded observations, we examine geneticists as they return exome sequencing results to families. We find that in consultations, clinical geneticists’ interpretations of genomic findings frequently go beyond the laboratory report. The news delivery offers parents insight into the basis of clinicians’ judgment but also invites parents’ involvement in the determination of genetic causality. Through this process, clinicians and parents collaborate to define the boundaries of uncertainty. We show that through collectively managing the causal ambiguities of genomic findings, clinicians and parents enact a care relationship that works to assuage underlying feelings of diagnostic uncertainty.

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