Understanding Structure and Function as a Model for 21st-Century Health Care.

Medicine is now at a turning point. The important role of a broader application of the structure-function model in health care is gaining recognition and it may, in fact, be a defining principle that can guide the development of future health care systems. This concept can be applied to the search for solutions to complex health-related issues that span across multiple domains: molecules, cells, tissues, organs, and organ systems. I believe it can equally be applied to a search for solutions to the social issues of our modern era: individual empowerment, relationships between and among people, relationships between and among nations, and population-based global concerns.