The medical case report as genre and social practice

Abstract

The medical case report is a long-standing genre that incorporates elements of literary and scientific discourse to describe and assign meaning to unusual or rare clinical phenomena. Drawing on a growing body of interdisciplinary scholarship, the present chapter explores contemporary developments in case report writing, what needs it serves within the biomedical community, and what affordances it offers in relation to other genres of research writing. The chapter specifically opens with a brief overview and framework for theorizing the case report as a typified but evolving social and rhetorical practice; it follows with a selective review of scholarship that engages with case reports in the context of evidence-based medicine and reporting standards; and it concludes with a discussion of possible avenues for future research, theory building, and application. Based on these foci, I suggest that medical case reports and associated guidelines offer unique opportunities for practitioners to define and negotiate the boundaries of quality reporting, highlight patient experience and agency, and call attention to issues that shape health care in the United States and throughout different parts of the world.