The use of typologies as heuristic devices in assisted reproductive technology practice: A qualitative analysis of patients and created typologies

Abstract

Typologies are classification systems often used by people in social settings. Typologies are often developed by people to make sense of complexity and difference (Loeb et al., 2015; Wrede-Sach et al., 2013). In healthcare, patients may use typologies to characterise practitioners (e.g., as empathic or authoritarian) (Timmerman et al., 2021) and different kinds of practices (Senn et al., 2016). They may also be used by practitioners. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with patients and with health care professionals working in the Assisted Reproductive Technology (ART) sector. We identified six typologies that were often drawn upon by healthcare professionals. These are: the patient as consumer; the hopeful patient; the misinformed patient; the expert patient; the demanding patient and the resolved patient. Typologies bring with them some risk being that they may reinforce dominant models of care/methods of operating such as close adherence to protocols; obscure individuality and entrench stereotypes. They may also privilege particular kinds of knowledge and diminish other information which may be important to patients. This paper considers how typologies may be used in the assisted reproductive technology setting by health care practitioners when considering how to care for their patients.