Developing a Unitary Model of the Clinical Management Process

Abstract

To date, in studies of clinical decision-making, most emphasis has been on the problem-solving/diagnostic phase of hospital-based practice assuming a strictly biomedical view of disease and illness. For the primary care physician a much broader biopsychosocial view of clinical decision-making is needed to cope with the early and ill-defined versions of disease and illness which we encounter and to take account of the overwhelming importance of management decision-making in primary care settings.