Low socioeconomic status and patient questionnaires in osteoarthritis: challenges to a "biomedical model" and value of a complementary "biopsychosocial model".

Modern medical care is based largely on a paradigm known as a "biomedical model," in which "objective," high-technology biomarkers guide clinical care, and most health outcomes are determined by health professionals rather than individuals, using drugs as the primary therapy. The biomedical model is spectacularly effective in the acute care inpatient hospital, the setting for 95% of medical education and training, and to guide management of many...