{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,10,9]],"date-time":"2026-10-09T14:52:03Z","timestamp":1791557523407,"version":"4.3.4"},"reference-count":48,"publisher":"BMJ","issue":"1","funder":[{"name":"The Norwegian Fund for Post-Graduate Training in Physiotherapy"}],"content-domain":{"domain":["bmj.com"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["Med Humanities"],"accepted":{"date-parts":[[2017,8,10]]},"published-print":{"date-parts":[[2018,3]]},"abstract":"<jats:p>This article investigates the clinical reasoning process of physiotherapists working with patients with chronic muscle pain. The article demonstrates how physiotherapists work with clues and weigh up different plots as they seek to build consistent stories about their patient\u2019s illness. The material consists of interviews with 10 Norwegian physiotherapists performed after the first clinical encounter with a patient. Using a narrative approach and Lonergan\u2019s theory of interpretation, the study highlights how, like detectives, the therapists work with clues by asking a number of interpretive questions of their data. They interrogate <jats:italic>what<\/jats:italic> they have observed and heard during the first session, they also question <jats:italic>how<\/jats:italic> the patient\u2019s story was told, including the contextual and relation aspects of clue production, and they ask <jats:italic>why<\/jats:italic> the patient\u2019s story was told to them in this particular way at this particular time. The article shows how the therapists configure clues into various plots on the basis of their experience of working with similar cases and how their detective work is pushed forward by uncertainty and persistent questioning of the data.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1136\/medhum-2017-011229","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2017,9,14]],"date-time":"2017-09-14T20:50:20Z","timestamp":1505422220000},"page":"40-45","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1136\/crossmarkpolicy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":14,"title":["Physiotherapists as detectives: investigating clues and plots in the clinical encounter"],"prefix":"10.1136","volume":"44","author":[{"given":"Birgitte","family":"Ahlsen","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Physiotherapy, Oslo and Akershus University College of Applied Sciences, Oslo, Norway"},{"name":"Department of Health Science, University of Oslo, Institute of Health and Society, Oslo, Norway"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Anne Marit","family":"Mengshoel","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Health Science, University of Oslo, Institute of Health and Society, Oslo, Norway"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Hilde","family":"Bondevik","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Health Science, University of Oslo, Institute of Health and Society, Oslo, Norway"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Eivind","family":"Engebretsen","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Health Science, University of Oslo, Institute of Health and Society, Oslo, Norway"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"239","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2017,9,14]]},"reference":[{"key":"2025092412251056000_44.1.40.1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1136\/bmj.312.7023.71"},{"key":"2025092412251056000_44.1.40.2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1111\/jep.12362"},{"key":"2025092412251056000_44.1.40.3","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1136\/bmj.g3725"},{"key":"2025092412251056000_44.1.40.4","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1007\/BF00489234"},{"key":"2025092412251056000_44.1.40.5","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1525\/maq.1998.12.3.273"},{"key":"2025092412251056000_44.1.40.6","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1","DOI":"10.1123\/apaq.29.1.1","article-title":"The good, the bad, and the ugly of evidence-based practice","volume":"29","author":"Bouffard","year":"2012","journal-title":"Adapt Phys Activ Q"},{"key":"2025092412251056000_44.1.40.7","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1007\/BF00489447"},{"key":"2025092412251056000_44.1.40.8","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1093\/jmp\/21.3.303"},{"key":"2025092412251056000_44.1.40.9","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1136\/medhum-2016-011037"},{"key":"2025092412251056000_44.1.40.10","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"323","DOI":"10.1136\/bmj.318.7179.323","article-title":"Narrative based medicine: narrative based medicine in an evidence based world","volume":"318","author":"Greenhalgh","year":"1999","journal-title":"BMJ"},{"key":"2025092412251056000_44.1.40.11","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"183","DOI":"10.1080\/21548331.1992.11705424","article-title":"Medicine and uncertainty","volume":"27200","author":"Hunter","year":"1992","journal-title":"Hosp Pract"},{"key":"2025092412251056000_44.1.40.12","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1136\/bmj.318.7175.48"},{"key":"2025092412251056000_44.1.40.13","first-page":"30","article-title":"The Fragility of Healing","volume":"29","author":"Mattingly","year":"2001","journal-title":"Am Anthropol"},{"key":"2025092412251056000_44.1.40.14","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Hunter KM . 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