[DSRP Evidence](https://dsrpevidence.org/)

# The Need for a New Medical Model: A Challenge for Biomedicine

## Details

**Authors** Engel, George Libman

**Year** 1977

**Publisher** Science

**Kind of work** article

**Discipline** Medicine

**Secondary disciplines** Psychology

**Applied** false

[Read it at the publisher](https://doi.org/10.1126/science.847460) 
10.1126/science.847460

## In authors' words

### What they set out to do (purpose)

To challenge the dominant biomedical model of disease and propose a broader model for research, teaching, and care.

### How they did it (methods)

Conceptual argument.

### What they found (results)

The author argues that the biomedical model leaves no room for the social, psychological, and behavioral dimensions of illness, and proposes a biopsychosocial model as a blueprint for research, a framework for teaching, and a design for action in health care.

## Commentary

### In short

Engel argues that a purely biomedical account of disease omits social, psychological, and behavioral dimensions, and proposes a broader model for medicine.

### Response

The proposal widens the unit of analysis to include several levels of organization, which is a part-whole claim. Caveats: this record rests on the abstract and publisher metadata only; the roles of perspective and of relationships between levels in the full text have not been checked, so only S is ticked. The paper is a conceptual proposal rather than an empirical test.

**Patterns it shows** S

**Added** 2026-10-15

**How to cite this** Engel, George Libman (1977). The Need for a New Medical Model: A Challenge for Biomedicine. Science.