ABSTRACT
An anthropological approach especially the approach called critical medical anthropology, which combines an appreciation for historical and contemporary political and economic arrangements with interpretive sensibilities takes complexity into account. Further, the anthropological perspective extends into key backstage areas, such as clinical education and training as well as provider-provider relations, like those expressed in doctor-doctor communication. Moreover, it explores how unexamined, culturally based program assumptions can even when shared by populations served underwrite profound miscommunications. The need for better orienting healthcare consumers, patients has not gone unnoted by health services professionals and researchers. Increasing the amount of anthropological research attending to meaning can have profound implications for the bridge's strength and health services' success. But anthropologists often go about such research in a way that scholars trained in the scientific method may find problematic. Rather than controlled and preplanned hypothesis testing in contrived situations, anthropologists often pursue open-ended research in naturally occurring social settings.
