When it comes to understanding health doctors and other medical professional’s use what is know as the biomedical model of health. The biomedical model treats illness as strictly something that is wrong with the workings of the body caused by things such as germs, disease and accidents and doesn’t take in to account a persons social or mental factors. The biomedical model also gives doctors a set of basic guidelines in which to work to. These guidelines include some practices that the general public would just take as obvious, for example; putting the care of the patient as top priority, to do no harm to the patient and to provide a cure for the patients ailment. These are all things we expect to get when we visit the doctor as this is why we go there.
Historical Views of health promotion was focused on making healthy life style changes in order to achieve disease prevention. Health in history was defined as the absence of illness or well being. The health science in history viewed the human being as sophisticated machine (Mechanist), that can be broken down into particles (reductionist) and treatment was directed only for the affected part. The science was based only on quantifiable objects and saw the spirit and body as separate objects (dualistic). The disease prevention and treatments were patriarchal in which masculine force was used to evict disease out of body (Robinson, 2004).
This will also improve patient outcome drastically. The healthcare is a holistic entity which involves both the treatment of acute consequences of poor health the prevention of poor health from occurring (Martone 1992). The more successful the HCO is in preventing disease, the more successful they will be in improving patient health (Carlyon 1984). This goes a long way to prove that disease prevention fits nicely into the mission statement of the HCO which says that healthcare organizations do their best to promote healthy living. Ethically, it is the duty of the HCO’s under the umbrella of the CDC, to design/develop strategies to prevent diseases.
Improvements in the prevention and treatment of illness have also reduced the cost of illness. Research in biomedical sciences, conducted on humans, will continue to help mankind discover new drugs and therapeutic strategies. Nonetheless, biomedical research that is performed on humans must strictly comply with medical ethics that are sanctioned in the Declaration of Helsinki and other applicable ethical laws. Informed consent plays a major role in ensuring the rights; safety and wellbeing of the study subjects. Informed consent is a process by which a subject voluntarily confirms his or her willingness to participate in a particular trial, after having been informed of all aspects of the trial, including potential risks and benefits and alternative management options that are relevant to the subject’s decision to participate.
M1 - Assess the biomedical and socio-medical models of health The biomedical model of health "The biomedical model of illness and healing focuses on purely biological factors, and excludes psychological, environmental, and social influences. This is considered to be the dominant, modern way for health care professionals to diagnose and treat a condition in most Western countries. Most health care professionals do not first ask for a psychological or social history of a patient; instead, they tend to analyse and look for biophysical or genetic malfunctions. The focus is on objective laboratory tests rather than the subjective feelings or history of the patient." (Wise geek) This is the model of health that has over taken the way medication, treatment and diagnoses is done in many Western countries.
This whole process of identifying and classifying is viewed as that of an objective nature that has created very little disagreement amongst the medical profession. In addition medical officials identify illnesses for instance doctors and not ‘lay people’, which can be seen as those outside the medical profession. The biomedical model has an emphasis on an Illness being treated and hopefully cured, for example with the use antibiotics can be use to treat infections. Biomedical treatments often involve the removal the cause, for example the virus or bacteria. Modern biomedicine rests upon two major developments, both of which remain influential to this day.
Kaptchuk wonders to what extend, if at all, Western medicine can take advantage of the placebo effect to improve treatment. Whats the big idea? For decades, the medical establishment has treated all placebo effects equally but Kaptchuk's studies show the importance of how fake treatments are administered. What has become most clear is that, despite the emphasis Western medicine places on material and chemical changes, medicine is a ritualistic event. Beyond the science of pharmaceuticals is the science of care, a role which encompasses how pills affect our physiology.
Personalized Medicine Strayer University Connie Bowens Introduction To Biology Kimberly Gaskins August 5, 2012 There are many definitions that would describe personalized medicine but the one that is most understandable is the use of marker assisted diagnosis and targeted therapies derived from an individuals molecular profile. (as cited in Science Direct, 2002). Personalized medicine will be very helpful especially in dealing with cancer patients because this can geno-type their selections so that there is little or no side effects when prescribed the medications. Accurate diagnostic tests have to be performed without fail to use personalized medicine. The major factor in personalized medicine is identifying
E.g. poor housing and poverty are causes to respiratory problems and in response to these causes and origins of ill health. The socio-model aimed to encourage society to include better housing and introduce programmes to tackle poverty as a solution. the strength of socio medical - encourages people to live healthy lifestyles It looks at the cause of the illness and tries to change the factor that causes illness to prevent are occurrence instead of just sending the person away with a bottle of pills until next time the weakness of social models - is that It takes time to look for factors affecting the illness and a prevention to stop. The focus of these models is principally to explain why health inequalities exist and persist.
The principles that I learn during course are very valuable. Conclusion The epidemiology perspective focuses on immediate causes and mechanisms of disease, it helps us understand how and why individuals become diseased, but it does not address the disease in its societal context, from the population perspective. I would definitely recommend this course to anyone who is willing to learn more about disease and