Humanisation in Medical Discourse: how an online Client-Professional encounter responds to Technologisation and Routinisation

By analyzing language structure and function in the question-answer posts found on the healthcare website Go Ask Alice!, this paper investigates expressions of humanisation in an interface largely structured by the tecnologisation and routinisation of healthcare communication. The analysis examines whether, when and how routine health question formulations disclose the Q-post writer's lifeworld (e.g. ideas of health, illness, and wellbeing) on the one hand, and whether, when and how routine answer formulations - which follow conventions of institutional and professional orders - reveal the healthcare providers' lifeworlds (e.g. responsibilities, values, ethics) on the other. In this study we investigated questions (Yes/No, question word, tag, choice, hypothetical, embedded, leading) and their corresponding answers. Then we identified and categorized question functions in relation to their relative answers (direct and honest, out of context, partially answering, avoiding answering, stalling, refusing, etc.). After matching question and answer structures with their correspondent functions, we focused on identifying qualities and aspects of humanisation. If technologisation and routinisation are a sine qua non of medical practice, as they accelerate and guarantee accurate clinical and diagnostic procedures, humanisation should continue to be sought out and supported to enhance information-based decision making, adherence to therapy, and greater client satisfaction. The technology of a healthcare website like Go Ask Alice! offers a model for the study of humanisation in medical discourse, where even though routine questions and answers are made by people interacting anonymously, the uniqueness of the individual can be identified in both the question and answer posts.