Abstract
The curriculum in most of the medical institutions in
Pakistan is based on biomedical model of disease
therefore emphasizing on biological causes underlying
all diseases. It explains all diseases in biological terms
and exclude or ignore those symptoms that cannot be
explained in biological basis. This is a reductionist and
exclusionary approach leading to a mind-body dichotomy that ignores the impact of mind on body1
. Thus
no or minimal consideration is given to behavioral and
psychosocial aspects of any disease; that in many
cases may lead to unacknowledged morbidity and
mortality of patients. Mere availability of a drug or vaccine is not enough to cure or prevent a disease unless
the patient is motivated to take the medicine or parents are convinced to bring the child for vaccination.
Health seeking behavior of patients or caregivers is
not just driven by presence of biological symptoms or
distress cause by an illness but also depend upon a
number of psychosocial factors. To address the gap
between body and mind George Engle1 in 1977 proposed the bio-psycho-social model of disease that
stressed on delivery of patient-centered care by interdisciplinary teams having expertise in mental health.
The implementation of this model requires teaching of
soft skills to health care professionals. These include
different aspects of doctor-patient relationship, communication skills and the understanding of the impact
of psychosocial issues on patients’ illness. Adoption of
this model is strongly desired as it will help in abandoning the mind-body dichotomy disseminated by the
biomedical model that is not only influencing our training programs but also much of our solo professional
practice and even some of our research.
Raza ur Rahman. (2015) Are we Ready to Deal the Challenge of Shifting from Biomedical Model?, Journal of Liaquat University of Medical and Health Sciences, Volume-14, Issue-3.
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