The RHB team had a productive summer with amazing conferences and manuscript writing. Having received so much useful feedback as of late, we are ready to publish some of the first project findings. The conferences we attended in the past months have really helped us contextualize our research and hone our arguments.<\/p>\n
In August, RHB was at the annual meeting of the American Sociological Association, where we were part of one of the five (!) Sociology of Reproduction panels. Given that RHB is UK-based, we were able to assess how the issues raised in our research relate to wider concerns regarding technology, medicine, and reproduction. Although the UK IVF conversation has lately involved a sustained critique of commercialisation, audiences have remarked that the industry here is quite tightly regulated when compared to other countries (the U.S. especially), where healthcare is largely driven by a strong consumer logic. This is particularly true of fertility treatment, where multiple IVF cycles can cost tens of thousands of US dollars. As reproduction researchers, however, we strongly feel that fertility care should be an integral part of public healthcare services for all.<\/p>\n
The ethics of new biomedical technologies was the focus of the first of our two panels at the 4S (Society for Social Studies of Science) meeting in late summer. Here, scholars raised excellent questions about the introduction of new medical technologies and the value they add to practice. As we have grappled with the role of time-lapse in IVF, we have found that the meanings of this technology can be different depending on one\u2019s position and perspective. \u00a0For example, time-lapse can be a great lab tool for embryologists, while also a reassuring technology for patients who want to know that their embryos are kept in a stable environment 24\/7. This is an aspect of time-lapse that our audience has found incredibly interesting.<\/p>\n
We have also recognized in our presentations that efficiency evidence is currently an important criteria for assessing new IVF technologies, especially in the UK add-on conversation. Based on our findings so far, this is one of the most salient themes that arises when talking to professionals about the value of new treatments. In the near future, we aim to publish our data on how fertility professionals in the NHS conceptualise evidence and its relation to time-lapse tools. In the meantime, we are also working on finishing up data collection, so that we can share findings on patient perspectives as well in the coming year. Last but not least, planning for public engagement activities in underway, with several events that will take place in 2020. Stay tuned!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The RHB team had a productive summer with amazing conferences and manuscript writing. Having received so much useful feedback as of late, we are ready to publish some of the first project findings. The conferences we attended in the past months have really helped us contextualize our research and hone our arguments. In August, RHB […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[8,4,21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-266","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-conferences","category-events","category-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9YI6o-4i","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":157,"url":"https:\/\/remakingthehumanbody.sbm.qmul.ac.uk\/?p=157","url_meta":{"origin":266,"position":0},"title":"ESHRE 2018","date":"25th July 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"At the beginning of this month, I had the pleasure of attending one of the biggest conferences on reproduction, organized by the European Society for Human Reproduction and Embryology (ESHRE). The ESHRE 2018 annual meeting took place in Barcelona, so, needless to say, I was brimming with excitement not only\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Conferences"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/remakingthehumanbody.sbm.qmul.ac.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/ESHRE.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":700,"url":"https:\/\/remakingthehumanbody.sbm.qmul.ac.uk\/?p=700","url_meta":{"origin":266,"position":1},"title":"Open consultation: When, where and how should fertility patients receive time-lapse videos?","date":"9th March 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"A new consultation document addresses how time-lapse videos of embryo development are shared with IVF patients. This is a work-in-progress and we are seeking feedback on the document until July 5th, 2023. You can find the consultation document in the Open Consultation page. To contribute to this consultation, please email\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "News"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":136,"url":"https:\/\/remakingthehumanbody.sbm.qmul.ac.uk\/?p=136","url_meta":{"origin":266,"position":2},"title":"Reproduction in Law and Art","date":"21st June 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"The early summer conference season has been quite eventful for us. We had the pleasure of presenting some of our initial findings at two events: the British Sociological Association's (BSA) Human Reproduction Study Group Annual Conference on May 24 and Visualising Reproduction on June 4. Although both took place in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Conferences"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/remakingthehumanbody.sbm.qmul.ac.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/visualising-reproduction-banner.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":262,"url":"https:\/\/remakingthehumanbody.sbm.qmul.ac.uk\/?p=262","url_meta":{"origin":266,"position":3},"title":"British Sociological Association Human Reproduction Study Group Annual Conference 2019","date":"20th June 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Last week we were delighted to attend the BSA Human Reproduction Study Group Annual Conference, held on June 12 at De Montfort University (DMU) in Leicester. During one of the late afternoon sessions, Manuela Perrotta (pictured below) presented our paper-in-progress on professional attitudes towards the role of evidence-based-medicine (EBM) in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Conferences"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/remakingthehumanbody.sbm.qmul.ac.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/IMG_2468.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":251,"url":"https:\/\/remakingthehumanbody.sbm.qmul.ac.uk\/?p=251","url_meta":{"origin":266,"position":4},"title":"QHRN 2019","date":"26th March 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Qualitative health researchers are well aware that we work in a world dominated by big data, quantitative research, and the gold standard of randomized controlled trials (RCTs). Upon hearing about a conference focused not only on contemporary health issues, but also on qualitative methods, the RHB team jumped at the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Conferences"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/remakingthehumanbody.sbm.qmul.ac.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/qhrn.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":147,"url":"https:\/\/remakingthehumanbody.sbm.qmul.ac.uk\/?p=147","url_meta":{"origin":266,"position":5},"title":"Remaking Reproduction in Cambridge","date":"16th July 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"A big event on the conference calendar this year was the \u2018Remaking Reproduction\u2019 conference organised by ReproSoc (Reproductive Sociology) at Cambridge University. With great enthusiasm, all three members of the research team attended three days between June 27-29, and Manuela Perrotta presented some initial work from the project in the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Conferences"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/remakingthehumanbody.sbm.qmul.ac.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/266","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/remakingthehumanbody.sbm.qmul.ac.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/remakingthehumanbody.sbm.qmul.ac.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/remakingthehumanbody.sbm.qmul.ac.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/remakingthehumanbody.sbm.qmul.ac.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=266"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/remakingthehumanbody.sbm.qmul.ac.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/266\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":267,"href":"https:\/\/remakingthehumanbody.sbm.qmul.ac.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/266\/revisions\/267"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/remakingthehumanbody.sbm.qmul.ac.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=266"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/remakingthehumanbody.sbm.qmul.ac.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=266"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/remakingthehumanbody.sbm.qmul.ac.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=266"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}