The Biomedical model of medicine is a model that many of the medical practitioners have been applying in the treatment of patients, and the model has seen more than reasonable success for quite some time now. This is the theory that is based on a number of different assumptions. First of these many principles states that the causes and rules for any behavior of the human body are open to research, discovery and understanding through the use of scientific methods. Another of these theories states that biological explanations of any disease could be sought from observing the behaviors of the body. These principles also state that knowledge is generated from observation and could be confirmed through experimentation. Also, medical knowledge is a tool that could be applied to repair the damage or mend the sick biological systems. This theory also states that disease is a condition of the human body and that condition has little to do with the psychological and sociological processes of the mind. The theory also states that every disease has an origin and therefore, its treatment could be accomplished by controlling the causes of such disease.
These are theories that are being disregarded in the present state of the biomedicine, and we are more widely accepting the roles of psychology and sociology in the biological health of an individual. With the development of these concepts, the medical theory is being pointed out to be considerably flawed. The first objection that researchers have on this theory is that it fails to recognize the existence of the people that live behind all the symptoms and biological troubles. It does not leave room for their input and completely discounts their feelings and the feelings of their family members and acquaintances. Yet another drawback with the theory is that it completely discounts the social and environmental impacts on an individual’s health.
The social model, on the other hand, considers the people in the social context. The social model therefore unlike the medical model focuses on the societal factors that impose risks to health including for instance pollution, stressful work, and discrimination and peer pressures. This model rather than looking into the cures and experimentation aims to alleviate the health inequalities that exist within the societies. In this way, the theory tried to eliminate the causes of illness and participated more on the role of defense rather than problem-solving.
There are a few problems however when we incorporate sociology into biomedicine. For one, the sociologists theorize that disease is not actually real or naturally occurring phenomena rather that it is the product of a number of social practices. It, therefore, negates the assumption of the medical theory and rather states that disease is not always stable or biological reality. The problem with this stance is that it completely throws out the window all of the experimentation and research that has so far been conducted in the field of medicine. Also, by convincing us of inconsistencies in diseases and the effects that result therefrom, it leaves us at the loss of treatment and leaves us at the mercy of improvisation with every case that comes to light. The solution that we have at this point is to find common ground between the two approaches. We have to acknowledge that society does, in fact, play a part in the progression of an ailment, but we must also accept that using experimentation and our prior knowledge, we can, in fact, make connections and use our experience to deal with the problem.
The social theorists also point out a significant difference in the western, and the non-western approaches to practicing medicine and they attribute this diversity to the differences that can be observed between the western and the non-western societies. By pointing
out this difference, the sociologists completely attribute medicine and its direction to the cultural and the societal practices, and little attention is paid to the fact that there may after all also arise differences in the ways people living in different parts of the world may practice medicine. So yes, the society and the diseases that affect the two diverse classes of the society may be different, but there may also be differences in the paths that the professionals from these two backgrounds approach the issues of the human body and how they deal with them. What little differences there are could also be investigated and discovered through sharing of ideas and research results.
The recent criticism of the medical theory had led to reduced faith in the biomedical practices, and there has resultantly increased demand for alternative forms of health care. The problem with this development, however, is that we are still in the premature phases of the sociological theory, and we have yet to carry out extensive research before we can become able to cater for our health tribulations through means other than the biomedical ones. The solution to this problem could be to speed up the research in the sociological theory to discover ways of prevention and reduction of sociological factors that may pose health risks. Meanwhile, we could try to fill the gap by encouraging the experimental side of the biomedicine.
Sociology is crucial to biomedicine, but it cannot replace the medical theory just yet. We have a long way to go before that can happen, and we should therefore not disregard completely the importance of disease and treatment in our lives.
List of References
Adibi, H. (February 2014). mHealth: Its Implications within the Biomedical and Social Models of Health – a Critical Review. Cyber Journals: Multidisciplinary journals in Science and Technology, 16-23.
Mental Health Nurse Training. (2012, November 05). Medical Model Of Health: Sociology and Mental Health Nursing. Retrieved from Mental Health Nurse Training: https://mentalhealthnursetraining.wordpress.com/2012/11/05/medical-model-of-health/
Walsh, M. (2004). Introduction to Sociology for Health Carers. Cheltenham: Nelson Thornes Ltd.
