Philosopher's contribution to medicine

A PHILOSOPHER from MMU has been honoured for his work promoting person-centred healthcare.

Prof Michael Loughlin, who works in the Department of Interdisciplinary Studies at the Cheshire campus, was awarded the Senior Vice President’s Medal at the first annual conference of the European Society for Person-Centred Healthcare.

Prof Loughlin was involved in the founding of the society, which looks at ways that medicine can move away from a wholly evidence-based model towards one which allows clinicians more freedom to use their experience and judgement.

He says that while person-centred medicine was “once dismissed as something with no intellectual based, it’s now widely recognised as important.”

Intelligent discussion

Prof Loughlin, who is a member of the University’s Institute for Humanities and Social Science Research, said: “A wholly evidence-based model of medicine can be reductionist, in that only evidence from certain specific research sources is considered important, while other sources such as opinion and medical intuition are thought of as being less important.

“The worry is that you can’t do medicine in that way – you need context-specific behaviour, consultants have to be able to make judgements. Person-centred medicine recognises the relational aspects – the fact that healthcare is a practise - and defends the perspective of patients and the judgements of clinicians.

“Evidence is important, but the big debate is around what is a good reason for a decision, and that’s where the philosophical input comes in. We need an intelligent discussion.”

The conference took place in Madrid. The awards were presented by the President and Chair of the Council of the Society, Professor Sir Jonathan Asbridge in front of senior clinicians, academics and policy-makers from the US, Canada and Australia as well as delegates from across Europe.