The biomedical model of medicine is the
medical model used in most
Westernhealthcare settings, and is built from the perception that a state of
health is defined purely in the absence of illness.[1]: 24, 26 The biomedical model contrasts with
sociological theories of care.[1]: 1 [2]
Forms of the biomedical model have existed since before 400 BC, with
Hippocrates 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.[1]: 25
Criticism of the model generally surrounds its perception that health is independent of the
social environment in which it occurs, and can be defined one way across all populations.[3] The model is also criticised for its view of the
health system as socially and politically neutral, and not as a source of
social and political power or as embedded into the structure of society.[4]
Features
In their book Society, Culture and Health: an Introduction to Sociology for Nurses,
health sociologists Dr. Karen Willis and Dr. Shandell Elmer outline eight 'features' of the biomedical model's approach to illness and health:[1]: 27–29
doctrine of specific aetiology: that all illness and disease is attributable to a specific,
physiological 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