The Measurement Lab

Whenever we encounter healthcare, we encounter measurement. From health assessments that capture our height and weight to tests that determine whether we meet the criteria for psychiatric diagnosis, measurement is central to our understanding of health and illness. Yet measurement reflects and reinforces existing biases and health inequalities. How can the measures necessary for medical practice capture the lived experiences of individuals? Do population level measures hold at the individual level? 

Led by Coreen McGuire, the Measurement Lab examines the social, cultural, political and historical forces that shape the meaning and function of measurement in medicine, health and health sciences. It explores how these forces guide how we think about what is ‘normal’ and ‘pathological’, what is ‘divergent’ or ‘typical’, and how measurement can render some people and their health experiences visible or keep them invisible.