Industry and Patient-Focused Initiatives

Abstract

Abstract This book has championed the attempt to make measures patient centered. It’s argued not only that these instruments can live up to their claim to “represent patient perspectives” but also that they should. Yet philosophical critiques of both patient-centered approaches and hermeneutic inquiry have argued equally that such an approach may be naive. Why? Because just as patient perspectives can be used to make our measurement practices more sensitive to human needs, they can also be captured by pharmaceutical industries to further their economic ends. Nonetheless, this chapter continues to argue that patient-centered measures are not only possible, but epistemically important and morally virtuous. This position, however, does not suppose the threat pharmaceutical industries pose isn’t real. It is real. This chapter explores this concern and argues the best way to resist these influences is to double down on epistemic dialogue.