Running against the Clock: Diagnosis, Treatment, and Patient-Doctor Relationships in China's Oncology Care

Yunpeng Chen, University of California, San Diego

This article examines how time pressure structures oncology care in China. Time is understood not as a singular dimension but as multiple, coexisting forms, encompassing physicians’ limited time for consultation, diagnosis, and treatment; patients’ time spent navigating the healthcare system; the biological progression of tumors; and the timing of access to medications. With a rapidly growing number of cancer patients, insufficient oncology professionals, and an uneven distribution of medical resources, China’s top-tier oncology hospitals face overwhelming demand from patients, many of whom are diagnosed with advanced-stage cancer. These conditions pose a central dilemma for Chinese oncology doctors: how can they provide timely and effective treatment to a large population of cancer patients, whose conditions often require individualized therapies that demand a significant amount of time? On the other hand, patients and their families are also under intense time pressure to secure optimal treatment from the right doctors at the right hospitals, as they are running against cancer’s clock. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork, digital ethnography, and archival materials, this study investigates the micro-level interactions between doctors and patients in oncological treatment, with particular focus on the strategies they adopt in negotiating the type of therapies across different clinical contexts. It then situates these interactions within broader political, economic, and cultural transformations, showing how this pattern of patient–doctor relationships takes shape under these structural conditions.

No extended abstract or paper available

 Presented in Session 138. Expertise and Accountability in Medicine: Case Studies from Around the World