#3 in a series. Previous entries:
#1: Proposing a new science of patient engagement, including the four minute interview video that defines the need for the project.
#2: The stages of a scientific field: Thomas Kuhn’s framework for how a field becomes a science organized around a paradigm, and then, sometimes, realizes that “anomalies” mean the paradigm is no longer sufficient to serve the field’s needs.
The purpose of this project is to examine whether medicine needs to become more methodical – more scientific – about what we mean by patient engagement, and what factors determine how well it works.
The role of unexplained observations
Science depends on its findings being … dependable! Section 2 of Structure, “The Route to Normal Science,” begins:
In this essay, ‘normal science’ means research firmly based upon one or more past scientific achievements, achievements that some particular scientific community acknowledges for a time as supplying the foundation for its further practice.
Let’s add line breaks and boldface, to spotlight the elements of thought:
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