The Technologies of Time Measurement: Implications at the Bedside and the Bench

4 January 2000 | Volume 132 Issue 1 | Pages 31-36

This essay explores how chronologically linked indices of health and illness, such as variation in body temperature, achieved clinical and scientific significance. It shows why time has been a potent concept through which key associations among the data of medicine are ordered and revealed, and it examines the graphical and case reporting methods of organizing evidence that made such associations possible.

Author and Article Information

From The University of Texas-Houston Health Science Center, Houston, Texas.

Requests for Reprints: Stanley J. Reiser, MD, MPA, PhD, The University of Texas-Houston Health Science Center, Box 20708, Houston, TX 77225; e-mail, sreiser{at}heart.med.uth.tmc.edu. For reprint orders in quantities exceeding 100, please contact the Reprints Coordinator; phone, 215-351-2657; e-mail, reprints{at}mail.acponline.org.