Health care may be moving towards holistic health
In an effort to contain rising health costs and improve patient satisfaction, it looks like healthcare may be moving towards holistic health. I certainly hope this model catches on!
The proposed model is called positive health care and breaks down health into six dimensions:
Curiously, that closely resembles my model of holistic health:
What I find very interesting is that whereas patients value all six of these dimensions roughly equally, health policymakers and insurance policy writers are at the farthest extreme away from equality. That means that health policy doesn’t line up with what we citizens consider health to be — and I’d be willing to bet that this difference is why so many people start turning to alternative medicine.
Of course, ‘normal’ medicine has its place and value — and integrating it into a bigger picture addressing all six of these dimensions more equally might help to better serve patients, and keep us all healthy in the long run.
More information:
- See Towards a ‘patient-centred’ operationalisation of the new dynamic concept of health: a mixed methods study, which is now being taken up by policymakers in the Netherlands.
- See my model of holistic health, which my research tells me is the secret to preserving health and longevity.
