The biomedical model of medicine care is the
medical model used in most
Western healthcare
Health care, or healthcare, is the improvement or maintenance of health via the preventive healthcare, prevention, diagnosis, therapy, treatment, wikt:amelioration, amelioration or cure of disease, illness, injury, and other disability, physic ...
settings, and is built from the perception that a state of
health
Health has a variety of definitions, which have been used for different purposes over time. In general, it refers to physical and emotional well-being, especially that associated with normal functioning of the human body, absent of disease, p ...
is defined purely in the absence of illness.
The biomedical model contrasts with
sociological
Sociology is the scientific study of human society that focuses on society, human social behavior, patterns of social relationships, social interaction, and aspects of culture associated with everyday life. The term sociology was coined in ...
theories of care.
History
Forms of the biomedical model have existed since before 400 BC, with
Hippocrates
Hippocrates of Kos (; ; ), also known as Hippocrates II, was a Greek physician and philosopher of the Classical Greece, classical period who is considered one of the most outstanding figures in the history of medicine. He is traditionally referr ...
advocating for physical
etiologies of illness. Despite this, the model did not form the dominant view of health until the nineteenth century during the
Scientific Revolution
The Scientific Revolution was a series of events that marked the emergence of History of science, modern science during the early modern period, when developments in History of mathematics#Mathematics during the Scientific Revolution, mathemati ...
.
Criticism
Criticism of the model generally surrounds its perception that health is independent of the
social environment
The social environment, social context, sociocultural context or milieu refers to the immediate physical and social setting in which people live or in which something happens or develops. It includes the culture that the individual was educated ...
in which it occurs, and can be defined one way across all populations. The model is also criticised for its view of the
health system
A health system, health care system or healthcare system is an organization of people, institutions, and resources that delivers health care services to meet the health needs of target populations.
There is a wide variety of health systems aroun ...
as socially and politically neutral, and not as a source of
social and political power or as embedded into the structure of society.
Alternative models
The
biopsychosocial model is offered as an alternative.
Features
In their book ''Society, Culture and Health: an Introduction to Sociology for Nurses'',
health sociologists Karen Willis and Shandell Elmer outline eight 'features' of the biomedical model's approach to illness and health:
* doctrine of specific aetiology: that all illness and disease is attributable to a specific,
physiological
Physiology (; ) is the science, scientific study of function (biology), functions and mechanism (biology), mechanisms in a life, living system. As a branches of science, subdiscipline of biology, physiology focuses on how organisms, organ syst ...
dysfunction
*body as a machine: that the body is formed of machinery to be fixed by medical doctors
*
mind-body distinction: that the mind and body are separate entities that do not interrelate
*
reductionism
Reductionism is any of several related philosophical ideas regarding the associations between phenomena which can be described in terms of simpler or more fundamental phenomena. It is also described as an intellectual and philosophical positi ...
*narrow definition of health: that a state of health is always the absence of a definable illness
*individualistic: that sources of ill health are always in the individual, and not the environment which health occurs
*
treatment versus
prevention: that the focus of health is on diagnosis and treatment of illness, not prevention
*treatment imperative: that medicine can 'fix the broken machinery' of ill-health
*neutral scientific process: that health care systems and agents of health are socially and culturally detached
See also
*
Biopsychosocial model
*
Medical model
*
Medical model of disability
*
Social model of disability
*
Trauma model of mental disorders
References
{{Reflist
Medical models