Is Medicine a Transnational Profession? A Comparative Study of Physicians’ Professional Knowledge and Practice in Ankara (Turkey), Beijing (China), Groningen (the Netherlands) and Würzburg (Germany)

ABSTRACT In this study of transnationalism in the professions, we use medicine as a contradictory test case because medicine relies on universalising scientific knowledge but caters to lay clients and is subject to nation state regulations. To determine whether medical knowledge and practice have transnationalised, we combine the lenses of neo‐institutionalism and pragmatism: We studied treatment guidelines, professional organisations and medical practices in four locations around the world. Seventy‐one physicians participated in a transnational quasi‐experiment by interacting with a simulated patient portraying heart failure. Despite maximised contrasts, findings show convergence not only in encoded knowledge but also in embodied practice. The evidence suggests that the medical profession has become genuinely transnational by incorporating globally convergent knowledge into everyday practice. We conclude that professionalism exemplifies a third logic of transnationalisation: Professions depend on peer recognition of knowledge, which offers them a degree of independence from both market forces and state regulation.