Résumé :
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This article argues that medical dominance, specifically the medical profession's control of bioscience knowledge, has resulted in a gap between the scientific knowledge-base and its clinical application. The example of pharmacological science is used to show that available technologies are not being applied to population groups and illness conditions that are socially distant from, and lack interest for, doctors in both primary and secondary care. The resultant'care gap'of unmet needs has created the opportunity for other health professions, particularly nurse practitioners, who are willing to engage with disadvantaged groups and chronic illness, to challenge the medical monopoly over prescribing. Doctors'failure adequately to apply the powerful tools of bioscience to all population groups, together with economic pressures on ressources, have made it possible for nurses to push into medicine's traditional territory.
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