Behavioral Medicine of the Future: From Disease to Health and Well Being, from the Individual to the Community and the Global, from Causes to Complexity
This chapter discusses future directions of behavioral medicine in terms of three broad themes, (1) understanding the individual and the relationships between behavior and health, (2) the global spread of the field of behavioral medicine, and, (3) how developments within its epistemology will change behavioral medicine and the understanding of behavior and within the broader domains of health, health care and prevention. Among these, discussion includes how behavioral medicine’s emphasis on reciprocal influence is reflected in broad trends emphasizing complexity and big data, reaching beyond “personalized medicine” to “personalized care,” the importance of a lifespan perspective, resilience and positive and protective influences, the importance of considering populations and scalability, global disparities, national and international policy, and the epidemiological transition provoking a change from concern for acute to noncommunicable, chronic diseases and a change from a focus on mortality to years of disability compromised health. Across these, there has been an evolution of our world views, our Weltanschauungen. These have evolved from “bench research” and clinical application to considering communities and populations, evolved to include “big data,” evolved from trying to limit and control confounders to analyzing and understanding complexity, and evolved from a narrow focus on biological pathology and curing disease to include broader concerns about behavior, disease management, and quality of life.
Abstract
This chapter discusses future directions of behavioral medicine in terms of three broad themes, (1) understanding the individual and the relationships between behavior and health, (2) the global spread of the field of behavioral medicine, and, (3) how developments within its epistemology will change behavioral medicine and the understanding of behavior and within the broader domains of health, health care and prevention. Among these, discussion includes how behavioral medicine’s emphasis on reciprocal influence is reflected in broad trends emphasizing complexity and big data, reaching beyond “personalized medicine” to “personalized care,” the importance of a lifespan perspective, resilience and positive and protective influences, the importance of considering populations and scalability, global disparities, national and international policy, and the epidemiological transition provoking a change from concern for acute to noncommunicable, chronic diseases and a change from a focus on mortality to years of disability compromised health. Across these, there has been an evolution of our world views, our Weltanschauungen. These have evolved from “bench research” and clinical application to considering communities and populations, evolved to include “big data,” evolved from trying to limit and control confounders to analyzing and understanding complexity, and evolved from a narrow focus on biological pathology and curing disease to include broader concerns about behavior, disease management, and quality of life.
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Fisher, Edwin B