In between ethics and efficiency. On the professional identity of doctors working for the drug industry in the field of biomedical oncology.

• Applicant: Dr. Christiane Schnell
• Subject Area: Empirical Social Research
• Term: from 2012 to 2016
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 229123496

The project connects empirical research on the professional identity of doctors working for the drug industry with a theoretical approach concerning the current changes of professionalism. Both, an increasing relevance of biomedicine and the rising economisation within the industrial research and development process, are affecting the current transformation of pharmaceutical production. Doctors, who are working as team leaders of international projects, are playing a key role in this process. They have to manage the research and development of new drugs and compo-nents in terms of medical innovation but also very strictly concerning economic efficiency. In the face of the fundamental alteration of the health care system during the last decades the medical profession experienced complex changes in respect of the relations between scientific and practical medicine, of ongoing specialization and a holistic perspective, of the expert-client relation and of the dynamics between profession and organizations. It is assumed, that the occupational field of doctors working for the pharmaceutical industry is also affected by theses changes. This becomes in particular apparent in the field of oncology, which is very much dependent on pharmaceutical developments. The professional identity of medicines working in this field is probably influenced by a combination of different socializing experiences within education, clinical practice, pure and applied research. In a theoretical perspective it is supposed, that this is exemplary for a contemporary type of professionalism, combining professional knowledge and values and managerial orientation on a new level. In how far disciplinary and ethical values and economic constraints of the pharmaceutical development come into conflict, how the professional self-concept is constituted on the individual level and if new moral communities are emerging, will be studied empirically within this project. Biomedical research on cancer-diseases is focussed, because this field represents distinctive contradictions between medical curing interests and the pressures of a branch, which is driven by shareholder value, high level investment risks and increasing international competition.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants