[Technology and disciplinary fields: cytotechnicians and implementation of the Pap test in Brazil]. / Tecnologia e campos disciplinares: os citotécnicos e a implementação do teste de Papanicolaou no Brasil.

ABSTRACT

The implementation of the Pap test as a primary technology in the control of cervical cancer in Brazil was the result of choices, agreements and disputes among certain professional groups, including physicians from various specialisations, pharmacists, biologists, biomedical scientists and cytotechnologists. The first part of the paper describes the process of formulating Brazil's first screening campaigns using the Pap smear, and the subsequent emergence of the profession of cytotechnology, whose practitioners interpret this test. Second, based on questions raised by international historiography in the field of science and technology, we explore in detail how the adoption of the Pap smear transpired within the Brazilian context, focussing on the debates among the various professional groups with an interest in the suitability of the test and on the relationships between the public and private healthcare sectors. We show that the professional career of cytotechnologists and the way in which the Pap smear has been implemented as a central technology for cervical cancer screening in Brazil have been shaped by the conflicting views of this technology held by different disciplines as well as by the relationship between these disciplines and labour market dynamics.