抄録
Today the concept of ‘lay expert’ is increasingly mentioned in public discussions of health care, the judiciary and other areas. In the health care arena, patients and the family are thought to be a person with ‘lay expertise’. The Expert Patient Programme (EPP), which has been managed by the National Health Service (NHS) in the UK, aims at institutionalising ‘lay expert’ in the national healthcare system. This paper illustrates the out-line of the EPP and analyses literatures on this scheme for understanding the concept of ‘lay expert’ and its impact on people's awareness of patient-professional relationship. It is concluded that the EPP works to promote a new concept of ‘expert’ whilst the new concept can conflict with requirements for the institutionalization of ‘expert’ in modern society.
