Cultura

Gatekeeping Care: The Medical Secretary as a Cultural and Institutional Core in Dentistry, Nursing, and Radiologic Technology

VOLUME 22, 2025

The Role of Targeted Infra-popliteal Endovascular Angioplasty to Treat Diabetic Foot Ulcers Using the Angiosome Model: A Systematic Review

VOLUME 6, 2023

Rawa Abdullah Alammari, Samu Rasheed Al Dawsari, Hanan Saad AlOtaibi, Abeer Kareem Aldhafiri, Sultan Saeed Dakhilallah
Mashael Abdulkarim Duhaym Alanazi, Asma Mutayib Alanazi, Mathaial Hamoud Alanazi, Wadha Hummer Alhumedi Aldosari, Albndari Saud Alanazi

Abstract

Healthcare organizations are often described through the visible authority of clinical professions—dentistry, nursing, and radiologic technology—while administrative roles are framed as supportive infrastructure. This conceptual article challenges that hierarchy by arguing that the medical secretary functions as a cultural and institutional core that materially shapes access, experience, and meaning of care. Synthesizing contemporary evidence on administrative work in primary care, clerical burnout, and administrative burden, the article positions secretarial practice as a form of infrastructural power enacted through (1) information governance, (2) temporal governance, and (3) communication gatekeeping. Recent qualitative studies show that administrative staff routinely conduct patient-facing triage, educate patients, reorganize visits, and coordinate systems under strain—especially during pandemic-era transitions—yet remain under-recognized in policy and professional discourse. The article integrates these findings with institutional and axiological perspectives to propose a relational model of healthcare in which administrative mediation is constitutive of care rather than peripheral to it. Implications are developed for professional identity formation across dentistry, nursing, and radiologic technology, and for ethics of access, fairness, and bureaucratic care. The conclusion outlines research directions for empirically examining secretarial centrality in interprofessional practice, digital workflows, and patient trust.

Keywords : medical secretary, administrative staff, gatekeeping, institutional power, professional identity, care ethics, access to care, coordination.
Erin Saricilar
Lecture in accounting. University of Basrah, College of Administration and Economics, Department of Accounting.

Abstract

Atherosclerotic disease significantly impacts patients with type 2 diabetes, who often present with recalcitrant peripheral ulcers. The angiosome model of the foot presents an opportunity to perform direct angiosome-targeted endovascular interventions to maximise both wound healing and limb salvage. A systematic review was performed, with 17 studies included in the final review. Below-the-knee endovascular interventions present significant technical challenges, with technical success depending on the length of lesion being treated and the number of angiosomes that require treatment. Wound healing was significantly improved with direct angiosome-targeted angioplasty, as was limb salvage, with a significant increase in survival without major amputation. Indirect angioplasty, where the intervention is applied to collateral vessels to the angiosomes, yielded similar results to direct angiosome-targeted angioplasty. Applying the angiosome model of the foot in direct angiosome-targeted angioplasty improves outcomes for patients with recalcitrant diabetic foot ulcers in terms of primary wound healing, mean time for complete wound healing and major amputation-free survival.
Keywords : Diabetic foot ulcer, angiosome, angioplasty