International Health Humanities Network Membership

My interests are in the role and nature of causation in heath science research and practice, specifically Physiotherapy. I claim that causation is manifest in all aspects of health science research and practice, e.g. causes of disease, causes of treatment effects. A further claim is that an understanding of the nature of causation is essential to the progress of health science. The focus of my thesis is then on causal matters related to treatment effects, and specifically how causation influences individual clinical decisions of treatment choice. Causal claims of therapeutic interventions are made by particular research methods, e.g. randomised controlled trials. I argue that the way health science presently structures these claims is not consistent with how causation is best thought of. I consider causation to be far more context-sensitive than the present evidence-based practice model allows. The problem is best highlighted when attempts are made to translate research data to individual instances of clinical decision making. I defend the theory of causal dispositionalism in offering a more relevant theory of causation for health science than present causal constructs.