Charles Bosk says that Freidson was a founding figure in medical sociology who played a major role in the growth and legitimization of the subject.
Calnan distinguishes this viewpoint from Talcott Parsons which focused more on the properties of expertise, ethics, and alturism of the profession.
[7]: 35 Freidson argues that this autonomy can lead to a false sense of objectivity and certainty within the medical profession.
[7]: 37 Profession of medicine won the Sorokin Award from the American Sociological Association for most outstanding contribution to scholarship.
[13]Peter Conrad argues that the book was the first book to apply sociological analysis to the profession and institution of medicine itself and contains many concepts that have affected understanding of medicine including professional dominance, functional autonomy, clinical mentality, self-regulation, the social construction of illness.