The making of health: a reflection on the first 10 years in the life of a journal

Abstract

This introduction to the Tenth Anniversary Issue surveys articles that have been published in health: since its launch. Reviewing the original aims of the journal, the editors discuss some of the main issues that authors have raised, both about health and illness. Focusing upon articles that have been published in this particular journal, we discuss the way that new medical technologies - particularly global ones - have shaped ideas about disease and its treatment, and in consequence about what 'good health' should be. Related to the growth in medical and other technology - not least the rise of the Internet during the life of this journal - is the number of articles that discuss the rights of patients and the establishment of what might be termed an 'illness culture'. We conclude that there continues to be more to health than it being the background to illness or disease, and ask the question: should the ‘taken for grantedness’ of health be taken for granted any longer?