
Biomedical Model Used in Health Care Among the most common biomedical model used in health care is the Chain of Causation, which is also identified as the Web of causation. The model is used to explore diseases in regards to the numerous biological factors that may have led to the condition.
What are the disadvantages and advantages of biomedical model?
The biomedical can also improve the quality of life for individuals suffering from chronic conditions. The disadvantages of biomedical model are several and some of them are; the use of advanced medical technology can be very costly to a government and therefore, biomedical model is very expensive (Wade & Peter, 2014, p. 10).
What are the main features of the biomedical model?
What is the biomedical model #1?
- Specific aetiology
- Germ theory
- Cartesian dualism
- Objectivity and experimentation
- Reductionism
- Normalisation
- Body-as-machine
What are the five assumptions of the biomedical model?
The main modifications to the international classification of functioning model are:
- A division of each main domain into a subjective (patient experienced) and objective (externally observed) component 16
- The addition of a further human factor that is essential in any analytical model—namely, the potential contribution of free will and personal choice 1
- A clarification of context, with separation of personal and social contexts.
What does biomedical model mean?
A biomedical model is a surrogate for a human being, or a human biologic system, that can be used to understand normal and abnormal function from gene to phenotype and to provide a basis for preventive or therapeutic intervention in human diseases. What should you know about the biomedical model of Health?

Why is the biomedical model important?
The biomedical model has its advantages: It offers explanations of mental ill-health that many people who experience mental health problems find reassuring as it can be the first stage towards recovery.
How effective is the biomedical model?
Although the biomedical model is effective in the diagnosis of a disease, and in developing treatment strategies and surgical procedures, the limitations of the medical model cannot be denied. The model does not effectively incorporate psychological, psychosocial, or spiritual factors.
Where is the biomedical model used?
The biomedical model of medicine is the current dominating model of illness used in most Western healthcare settings, and is built from the perception that a state of health is defined purely in the absence of illness.
What are the advantages of the medical model?
Some benefits of the medical model approach to patient care include:Effective identification of symptoms and analysis to determine a root cause.A treatment-first approach to address concerns for both safety and comfort.An objective approach to narrowing potential conditions to improve diagnostic accuracy.
How does the biomedical model influence our understanding of health?
Another idea introduced with the biomedical model is a specific understanding of 'health', which is seen merely as the absence of physical signs of disease. As a result, curing a disease is exclusively a task for medical professionals and medical technology, while the patient is only a receiver of such cures.
How is the biomedical model used in health and social care?
The biomedical model is considered to be the dominant modern model of disease. According to this model, good health is the freedom from pain, disease or defect. It focuses on physical processes that affect health, such as the biochemistry, physiology and pathology of diseases.
What is the focus of the biomedical model of health?
VCAA tells us that the biomedical model “focuses on the physical or biological aspects of disease and illness. It is a medical model of care practised by doctors and health professionals and is associated with the diagnosis, cure and treatment of disease”.
What is a biomedical model in healthcare?
The medical, or as it has more properly become known, the 'biomedical' or 'scientific' model, draws upon biochemical explanations of ill health as the basis for treatment and intervention, as opposed to the focus of other forms of non-allopathic medicine (see Alternative or complementary medicine).
What is biomedicine model?
The biomedical model of health focuses on purely biological factors and excludes psychological, environmental, and social influences. It is considered to be the leading modern way for health care professionals to diagnose and treat a condition in most Western countries.
Is the medical model used today?
The medical model, which is more widely used by psychiatrists than psychologists, treats mental disorders as physical diseases whereby medication is often used in treatment.
How does the biomedical model view disability?
The medical model sees disability as something that is 'wrong' with a person's body or mind. The medical model is criticised for seeing the impairment as the most important part of the person and suggesting the person is helpless to do anything about this.
What is the benefit of learning models of disability?
Models assist understanding by allowing one to examine and think about something that is not the real thing, but that may be similar to the real thing. People use a variety of models to obtain a clearer understanding of a problem or the world around them.
What are the disadvantages of the medical model?
The medical model looks at what is 'wrong' with the person, not what the person needs. It creates low expectations and leads to people losing independence, choice and control in their lives.
What is the most problematic flaw in the biomedical model of medicine?
What is the most problematic flaw in the biomedical model of medicine? It does not take into account the patient as a person and the patient's attributes as an individual.
What does the biomedical model believe?
Abstract. The biomedical model posits that mental disorders are brain diseases and emphasizes pharmacological treatment to target presumed biological abnormalities. A biologically-focused approach to science, policy, and practice has dominated the American healthcare system for more than three decades.
What are the advantages of the social model of health?
Social model often ensures physical and mental health and broader sphere of participating in active life. The model permits most understated discrimination of people that succeed to lead productive lives irrespective of physical damage.
What are the features of biomedical models?
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. They are: 1 doctrine of specific aetiology: that all illness and disease is attributable to a specific, physiological dysfunction 2 body as a machine: that the body is formed of machinery to be fixed by medical doctors 3 mind-body distinction: that the mind and body are separate entities that do not interrelate 4 reductionism 5 narrow definition of health: a state of health is always the absence of a definable illness 6 individualistic: that sources of ill-health are always in the individual, and not the environment which health occurs 7 treatment versus prevention: that the focus of health is on diagnosis and treatment of illness, not prevention 8 treatment imperative: that medicine can 'fix the broken machinery' of ill-health 9 neutral scientific process: that health care systems and agents of health are socially and culturally detached and irrelevant
When did the biomedical model start?
Forms of the biomedical model have existed since before 400 BC , with Hippocrates, the "father of medicine" advocating for physical aetiologies of illness. Despite this, the model did not form the dominant view of health until the 1800s during the Scientific Revolution.
Biomedical Sciences in Nursing
The Biomedical model of nursing is anchored on the pure biological factors of an individual without the environmental, psychological as well as social factors influencing them (Lane, 2014). The model is revealed to be the leading aspect that informs the modern way of diagnosing and treating the condition as it emphasizes upholding objectivity
Biomedical Model Used in Health Care
Among the most common biomedical model used in health care is the Chain of Causation, which is also identified as the Web of causation. The model is used to explore diseases in regards to the numerous biological factors that may have led to the condition.
The Biomedical Model Used in Behavioral Mental Health
Among the most notable biomedical model used in Behavioral Mental Health is the natural history of the disease model. This model focuses on the course that a condition or disorder takes in an individual from its pathological onset to its ultimate resolution through complete recovery.
Get Professional Assignment Help Cheaply
Are you busy and do not have time to handle your assignment? Are you scared that your paper will not make the grade? Do you have responsibilities that may hinder you from turning in your assignment on time? Are you tired and can barely handle your assignment? Are your grades inconsistent?
Online Academic Help With Different Subjects
Students barely have time to read. We got you! Have your literature essay or book review written without having the hassle of reading the book. You can get your literature paper custom-written for you by our literature specialists.
Are your writers competent enough to handle my paper?
Our essay writers are graduates with bachelor's, masters, Ph.D., and doctorate degrees in various subjects. The minimum requirement to be an essay writer with our essay writing service is to have a college degree. All our academic writers have a minimum of two years of academic writing.
What if the paper is plagiarized?
We check all papers for plagiarism before we submit them. We use powerful plagiarism checking software such as SafeAssign, LopesWrite, and Turnitin. We also upload the plagiarism report so that you can review it. We understand that plagiarism is academic suicide.
What is the biomedical model of health?
The biomedical or medical (sometimes also known as the bio-mechanical) model of health, is a scientific measure of health and regards disease as the human body having a breakdown due to a biological reason. A patient is seen as a body that is sick and can be handled, explored and treated independently from their mind and other external considerations. The treatment therefore will be from medical professionals with appropriate knowledge, and must take place in an environment where medical technology exists (Giddens. 2009). A definition of ‘health’ from the World Health Organization (WHO – specialist to international public health for the United Nations) is: “Health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity” (World Health Organization. 1946). ‘Illness’ is what a patient suffers when they experience a breakdown in the way they are feeling or thinking, and ‘disease’ is an abnormality with the body and its component parts and is diagnosed and treated by doctors (Pool and Geissler. 2005).
Which model of health is the most dominant?
It is evident that the biomedical model is the most dominant model of health and conflicts with the main opposition, the social model, as it doesn’t take into account the wide range of considerations, just the human body and its focus on the cure rather than prevention.
How is the regulation of women's bodies now?
The regulation of women’s bodies by controlling their sexual expression and reproductive capacity is now conducted through medicine , whereas in the past religion played this role. For women, a healthy body is tied to healthy sexuality and reproduction within the confines of lawful marriage.
Is alternative medicine considered inferior?
A further point is that ‘alternative’ or ‘complementary’ medicine, that is not approved by the British Medical Association but which could be of benefit to patients, is seen as inferior by the medical profession – but to not even consider it, is not in the patient’s best interests (Giddens. 2009).
Who found that there is a conflict between doctors and patients' views of the ideal consultation?
Byrne and Long found that there is a conflict between doctors’ and patients’ views of the ideal consultation (not surprisingly, doctors prefer short, doctor-centred consultations). Talcott Parsons was a Functionalist, known for his ‘sick role’ theory in 1951 (cited by Moore. 2008).
Do doctors have social control?
Consequently, doctors have social control and this perspective fits well with the biomedical model. Each individual has a mutual duty to get themselves well again, with little empathy if their illness is self-inflicted, for example drinking too much alcohol.
Why is biomedical model important?
Biomedical model of health is a positive method. It encourages you to do research about the diseases. It does not assume that you cannot do anything to treat a particular disease. With the use of this method, you learn about the causes of the diseases. It helps you to avoid disease.
What is a biomedical model?
It is a scientific measure that doctors take to find out the reasons behind a particular disease. They solely focus on the biological reasons to learn about the illness with this method.
What is the difference between a biomedical and a social model of health?
As the name suggests, biomedical model deals with the physical and biological factors of diseases. In contrast, in social model, medical professionals give a thought to the wide range of the factors.
What are the benefits of biomedical models?
Advantages of the biomedical model of health 1 Biomedical model of health is a positive method. It encourages you to do research about the diseases. It does not assume that you cannot do anything to treat a particular disease. 2 With the use of this method, you learn about the causes of the diseases. It helps you to avoid disease. 3 Research has helped the medical professionals to come up with the finest treatments.
What are the factors that influence the social model of health?
Factors such as lifestyle, environment, and economy are crucial in the social model of health. It helps the doctors to determine how these factors urged the people to use these products. Ultimately, medical professional find out how it has affected the patients’ health.
How to get the exact idea of diseases?
To get the exact idea of the diseases, you have to analyze the work and age of the patients. It is also must to analyze the health system where the patients have grown. Money distribution, power, resources at all levels are the reasons behind things turn out this way.
Is the social model the same as the biomedical model?
The social model gives preference to the prevention. Biomedical model is dependent on the healthcare system. The social model is not the same. Biomedical model is not on the trend today. On the other hand, the social model of health is in use nowadays.
What is the biomedical model of illness?
The biomedical model of illness, which has dominated health care for the past century, cannot fully explain many forms of illness. This failure stems partly from three assumptions: all illness has a single underlying cause, disease (pathology) is always the single cause, and removal or attenuation of the disease will result in a return to health.
What are the traditional biomedical models of illness?
Traditional biomedical models of illness focus attention on discovering the pathology rather than understanding the illness. Biomedical models have been associated with huge improvement in medical care. They do not explain functional somatic syndromes and illness without discernable disease.

Definition of Biomedical Model of Health
The biomedical model of medicine is the current dominating model of illness used in most Western healthcare settings, and is built from the perception that a state of health is defined purely in the absence of illness. The biomedical model contrasts with sociological theories of care, and is generally associated with poorer outcomes and greater health inequality when compared to socially-derived models.
Biomedical Model Advantages
Biomedical Model Criticisms and Disadvantages
Conclusion