Related Experiment Video
Updated: Sep 9, 2025

Comprehensive & Cost Effective Laboratory Monitoring of HIV/AIDS: an African Role Model
Published on: October 31, 2010
"Here it is not about learning Evidence-Based Medicine; it is about Context-Based Medicine": Pragmatic Approaches to
1Servicio Madrileño de Salud, Madrid, Spain. beatriz.aragon@salud.madrid.org.
Abstract:
This article explores the potential of liberation medicine through an ethnographic account of a primary healthcare van operating in Cañada Real, an informal settlement on the margins of Madrid. Drawing from 10 years of clinical experience and anthropological inquiry, the article offers a situated analysis of "context-based medicine"; a mode of practice grounded in relationality, trust, and responsiveness to structural violence. Engaging with María Lugones' concept of pilgrimages and Hannah Arendt's idea of power with, the paper examines how this interstitial program disrupts dominant rationales within the healthcare system (gatekeeping, managerialism, and evidence-based medicine) by fostering collective, care-based alternatives. Through fieldwork and reflective practice, the author argues that the van's displacement (which is physical, institutional, and professional) creates a liminal space where emancipatory practices can emerge. While not a utopian model, the van provides a lens to imagine how clinical work might transgress spatial and institutional boundaries to align more closely with the political and ethical stakes of care.
Related Concept Videos
Methods Of Healthcare Delivery System
Managed Care System:
The managed care system is designed to control the cost while maintaining the quality of care. The patient's care from admission to discharge is planned by the primary care provider or the case manager, also known as the gatekeeper. In a managed care system, the number of care providers is...
Community Based Intervention
Foundations of Community Mental Health Programs
Central to the success of community-based interventions is the...
Nursing Ethical Principles II
Consider the following scenario, which illustrates how these principles are applied in the care of Mr. John, a fifty-year-old teacher diagnosed with metastatic liver cancer.
Initially, Mr. John's...
Ethical Issues
Ethical Concerns in Healthcare:
Humanistic Therapy
Primary Healthcare Services
In 1978, international leaders convened in Alma-Ata, Kazakhstan, for what would be a pivotal event in global health. The Alma-Ata Declaration was the first to call...

