2.1. Formation of subject matter in sociology of medicine
The development of any science and appearance of novel avenues of investigation are characterized with refinement of the views on the subject matter of scientific discipline, revision of the problems to be examined thereby updating the views on interaction with other scientific branches. Therefore, by describing the subject of sociology of medicine, it is important to analyze the very process of appearance of the novel subject matter in sociological and medical studies as well as to distinguish it from those of the related sciences.
The need to specify the subject matter of a scientific branch is explained by the fact that as a rule, most scientific disciplines typically carry out the research in their individual subject matters. There are few exceptions from this observation - probably, only philosophy, mathematics, and physics can successfully formalize logical (mathematics) and cognitive (philosophy) operations in virtually any subject matter. A clear-cut definition of scientific subject matter delimits the allied sciences, and in the following, it makes it possible to fundamentalize the basic scientific results.
While being initially merged with sociology and social hygiene in a company with public health organizations as a routine tool in the arsenal of scientific research methods (employed in the sociological studies within the healthcare system), sociology of medicine created all the premises to be considered as individual scientific discipline. During planning and implementing the medico-sociological studies, two features had been stressed that underlie the union between sociology and public health: 1) medicine as a social institution and a subsystem of the overall social system; and 2) the sociological aspects in the study and treatment of the diseases.