Medical sociology in the context of "Talcott Parsons"

Sociology is the scientific study of human society that focuses on society, human social behavior, patterns of social relationships, social interaction, and aspects of culture associated with everyday life. The term sociology was coined in the late 18th century to describe the scientific study of society. Regarded as a part of both the social sciences and humanities, sociology uses various methods of empirical investigation and critical analysis to develop a body of knowledge about social order and social change. Sociological subject matter ranges from micro-level analyses of individual interaction and agency to macro-level analyses of social systems and social structure. Applied sociological research may be applied directly to social policy and welfare, whereas theoretical approaches may focus on the understanding of social processes and phenomenological method.

Traditional focuses of sociology include social stratification, social class, social mobility, religion, secularization, law, sexuality, gender, and deviance. Recent studies have added socio-technical aspects of the digital divide as a new focus. Digital sociology examines the impact of digital technologies on social behavior and institutions, encompassing professional, analytical, critical, and public dimensions. The internet has reshaped social networks and power relations, illustrating the growing importance of digital sociology. As all spheres of human activity are affected by the interplay between social structure and individual agency, sociology has gradually expanded its focus to other subjects and institutions, such as health and the institution of medicine; economy; military; punishment and systems of control; the Internet; sociology of education; social capital; and the role of social activity in the development of scientific knowledge.

Health politics or politics of health is an interdisciplinary field of study concerned with the analysis of social and political power over the health status of individuals.

Health politics, incorporating broad perspectives from medical sociology to international relations, is interested not only in the understanding of politics as government or governance, but also politics as civil society and as a process of power contestation. It views this wider understanding of politics to take place throughout levels of society — from the individual to the global level. As such, the politics of health is not constrained to a particular area of society, such as state government, but rather is a dynamic, ongoing social process that takes place ubiquitously throughout our levels of society.

Carl May FAcSS (born 1961, in Farnham, Surrey) is a British sociologist. He researches in the fields of medical sociology and Implementation Science. Formerly based at Southampton University and Newcastle University, he is now Professor of Health Systems Implementation at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. Carl May was elected an Academician of the Academy of Learned Societies in the Social Sciences in 2006. He was appointed a Senior Investigator at the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) in 2010. He was elected an Honorary Fellow of the Royal College of General Practitioners in 2020. He has honorary professorial appointments in primary care at the University of Melbourne, and in public health at Monash University.

May is best known for his contributions to Implementation Science and his work is represented by many studies of the interaction between health technologies and their users. In Implementation Science his work investigates how innovations become routinely embedded in health care and other organizational systems. This research has led to Normalization Process Theory, developed with Tracy Finch and others, including Victor Montori. This is a sociological theory of the implementation, embedding, and integration of new technologies and organizational innovations. May and colleagues have applied Normalization Process Theory to explaining patient non-compliance with treatment, proposing that a proportion of non-compliance is structurally induced by healthcare systems themselves as patients are overburdened by treatment. To counter this, they have proposed Minimally Disruptive Medicine, which seeks to take account of its effects on patients' workload.

Diffusion of Innovations is a 1962 book by Everett Rogers.

Rogers synthesized research from over 508 diffusion studies across the fields that initially influenced the theory: anthropology, early sociology, rural sociology, education, industrial sociology and medical sociology. Rogers applied it to the healthcare setting to address issues with hygiene, cancer prevention, family planning, and drunk driving. Using his synthesis, Rogers produced a theory of the adoption of innovations among individuals and organizations.

Medicalization is the process by which human conditions and problems come to be defined and treated as medical conditions, and thus become the subject of medical study, diagnosis, prevention, or treatment. Medicalization can be driven by new evidence or hypotheses about conditions; by changing social attitudes or economic considerations; or by the development of new medications or treatments.

Medicalization is studied from a sociologic perspective in terms of the role and power of professionals, patients, and corporations, and also for its implications for ordinary people whose self-identity and life decisions may depend on the prevailing concepts of health and illness. Once a condition is classified as medical, a medical model of disability tends to be used in place of a social model. Medicalization may also be termed pathologization or (pejoratively) "disease mongering". Since medicalization is the social process through which a condition becomes seen as a medical disease in need of treatment, appropriate medicalization may be viewed as a benefit to human society. The identification of a condition as a disease can lead to the treatment of certain symptoms and conditions, which will improve overall quality of life.