ABSTRACT
The study of Everyday Clinical Work (ECW) may seem puzzling for researchers and practitioners who are accustomed to the type of clinical research that dominates modern health care. The purpose of clinical research is to determine whether something – a new type of medication, a new device, a new diagnostic product or a new treatment regime intended for human use – is sufficiently safe and effective. Clinical research follows the tradition of empirical research and the scientific method honoured by Western science since Roger Bacon, where researchers propose hypotheses and design experimental studies to test the predictions derived from the hypotheses. Or they try at any rate to determine whether changes to one or more independent variables have predictable, or at least systematic, effects that can be measured by the dependent variables. The scientific method is intended to be as objective as possible in order to reduce subjective biases in either the collection of data or the interpretation of results.
