What is the Medical Model of Health?

The Medical Model of Health has been discussed for years, yet many people have not even heard of it. The Medical Model of Health has been broadly defined as the concept that there are two basic models of health care: A medical model that focus on preventive care, treatments and disease prevention; and a public health model that emphasize community well-being, promotion of health education and measures of quality of life. This article will discuss the various difficulties in implementing these models. We will also explain what are the Medical Model of Health and what its relation to other models exist.

As we know, prevention is better than cure. However, with large gaps in preventive health care systems across the developed world, many people do not have access to the services they need to prevent and treat diseases and injuries. As more people live in cities and dense settings, the social and economic consequences of poor health care are becoming more visible, with people literally being pushed into deserts and wastage of natural resources. In addition, while the rich and powerful take care of themselves through Preventive Care, there are fewer resources available for the poor and powerless, creating the urgent need for better services.

Furthermore, there is a danger posed by the development of medicalization, with all the focus on treating the symptoms of illnesses. People’s health will be taken for granted. The Medical Model of Health offers a way out of this trap. There is no denying that technology has made our lives easier, but there is also a danger that this comfort and convenience could become a curse, with people’s health being taken for granted and unimportant. This model helps us to see that what is important is not necessarily wealth or power, but rather the ability to reach out and meet the basic needs of our bodies, and the preservation of the fundamental right to health.

It is difficult to implement such a system successfully without an accurate understanding of the current structure of health, and what can go wrong if we fail to make changes. One of the problems with the medical model of health is that it tends to focus mainly on the symptoms rather than the cause, and this means that the treatment is often superficial and does not address the underlying causes of disease. For example, modern medicines are usually quite successful in removing a wart from the skin, but what is the most important thing to ask ourselves when confronted with a wart? Is it the superficial effect of the wart removal, or the fact that we have removed part of the root of the problem?

Such a model makes simplistic common sense. Most of us have a reasonable idea of what is the best way to deal with a cut ankle. The problem is that a simple cure has been prescribed, and the patient may be advised to rest the ankle for a few days, not to mention the cost involved in paying a doctor to perform surgery. This is why many people are now looking towards alternative medicine. Many alternative practitioners use alternative treatments to promote good health care and reduce illness and death rates.

But what is the medical model of health? If we look at it from another perspective, we will see that it is quite different. The model that emerged from the Hippocratic doctors and the Roman physicians is not the pessimistic one that characterises modern medicine. Instead of treating the symptom and hoping for the best, we ask more of the person, asking him or her about their whole life experience and how their body is responding to it. We ask questions like what kind of emotions or physical experiences led up to the symptom, what are the environmental circumstances that lead to the outbreak, and what are the particular genes or environmental traits that have been inherited through generations.