Evidence map›Paper›PMID 37148746›Full record

ArticleSocial science & medicine (1982)2023

Beyond the biomedical, towards the agentic: A paradigm shift for population health science.

Jessica Acolin, Paul Fishman

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Social science & medicine (1982), 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 8 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
8citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

8 citing papers in PubMed.

  1. Review
  2. Article
  3. Article
  4. Article
  5. Article
  6. Article
  7. 'They Take the Mum Off You When You Come In': An Ethnographic Study of Parent Experiences of Medicines Safety Systems in English Hospitals.Health expectations : an international journal of public participation in health care and health policy · 2025
    Article
  8. Review
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

2 authors.

Jessica AcolinDepartment of Health Systems and Population Health, School of Public Health, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA. Electronic address: jyacolin@uw.edu.
Paul FishmanDepartment of Health Systems and Population Health, School of Public Health, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA.

Funding

University of Washington Health Services Research Training ProgramT32HS013853 · AHRQ · UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON · PI WEINER, BRYAN J., WILLIAMS, EMILY CATERINA · 2003 to 2024
$6.9M
AHRQ HHS T32 HS013853
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Life expectancy in the United States is decreasing. Health disparities are widening. Growing evidence for and integration of social and structural determinants into theory and practice has not yet improved outcomes. The COVID-19 pandemic reinforced the fact. In this paper, we argue that the biomedical model and its underlying scientific paradigm of causal determinism, which currently dominate population health, cannot meet population health needs. While criticism of the biomedical model is not new, this paper advances the field by going beyond criticism to recognize the need for a paradigm shift. In the first half of the paper, we present a critical analysis of the biomedical model and the paradigm of causal determinism. In the second half, we outline the agentic paradigm and present a structural model of health based on generalizable, group-level processes. We use the experience of the COVID-19 pandemic to illustrate the practical applications of our model. It will be important for future work to investigate the empirical and pragmatic applications of our structural model of population health.

Indexed as

COVID-19PandemicsForecastingHumansLife ExpectancyUnited StatesAgentic paradigmBiomedical modelCausal determinismCongruenceCOVID-19Population health theoryStructural resilience

Identifiers

PMID37148746
PMCPMC10154061

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.