A new perspective on intersectional patterns of iatrogenic harm

Groups related to this event

Centre for Healthcare Resilience and Implementation Science

Event date

Wednesday, 28 September 2016

Speaker

Associate Professor Joanne Travaglia. Please view the seminar video here.

Abstract

Efforts to improve the safety and quality of care have primarily focused on patients and professionals. But even a cursory glance at patient safety inquiries around the world reveals a pattern which is, and always has been, ‘hidden in full sight’. Medical errors and adverse events are not evenly distributed and harm is not simply ‘opportunistic’. There are population level differences in the rates and types of iatrogenic harm amongst, for example, the elderly, the young, women, people with disabilities, people from Indigenous and CALD backgrounds, those living in rural and remote communities, prisoners, and people from lower socio-economic backgrounds. The fact that these differences are neither well-recognised nor well-researched speaks in and of itself to the intersectional nature of the iatrogenic harm experienced by vulnerable groups, and their systematic exclusion from the broader patient safety agenda.

This presentation will draw on the disciplines of sociology and philosophy to examine decades of data from public health inquiries, along with and primary research conducted with Professor Jeffrey Braithwaite, as a way of exploring the ontological and epistemological differences which contribute to distinct patterns of harm across vulnerable groups and populations. It will offer a new way of conceptualising iatrogenisis, its causes and consequences.

Speaker profile

Joanne Travaglia is a sociologist and Associate Professor within the health management program of the Faculty of Health at the University of Technology Sydney. Her research draws on the work of sociologists and philosophers such as Bourdieu, Laugier and Fricker to examine the patterns and perceptions of, and responses to, vulnerability and risk within healthcare systems and services.

Seminar details

Date: Wednesday 28th September 2016

Time: 12pm - 1pm

Venue: Seminar Room, Level 1, 75 Talavera Road, Macquarie University

Chair: Associate Professor Frances Rapport, Centre for Healthcare Resilience and Implementation Science, AIHI