In her poem “Internet Dating for Centenarians” (Intima, Fall 2021), Sarah Smith paints an animated picture of her cheeky and cheerful elderly patient. Smith, a board-certified family physician and author of The Doctor Will Be Late, describes her dilemma about which topic to discuss with her patient—lipids or love. She comes to a decision easily, saying:

And could explaining online dating qualify as patient education?
Might as well, I figure,
no one needs more Lipitor
more than love.

These lines capture the essence of what my own artwork, “Primary People” (Intima, Fall 2021) aims to embody—the idea that people are so much more than biological entities, that the psychological and social elements of their lives contribute critically to health and well-being. This fuller-fleshed view of a person is expressed aptly in the biopsychosocial model of patient care.

The relationship between human body and disease is complicated, which means there are many intricate parts and interconnected pieces involved; but this relationship is fundamentally knowable. In contrast, the relationship between humans and disease is complex, which is very different from “complicated.” Complexity entails many interdependent parts, non-linear experiences and behaviors—it means that the relationship between a whole human and disease is much harder to know definitively.

As clinicians, we are often taught to focus on the first relationship—the one between body and disease, which is reflected in the biomedical approach. However, as healers we have actually signed up for the task of being in relation with the whole human—body, mind, soul, context—all of it.

The dualistic nature of the biomedical approach effectively divorces the body from these other aspects instead of trying to understand the complex connections among them. Standing as an antidote, the biopsychosocial approach is a philosophy of clinical care. It is a way of understanding disease, illness and suffering from a molecular level to the societal. It is also a practical guide helping clinicians understand that a patient’s subjective experience has a significant impact on disease development, prevention, and health outcomes.

When we interact with our patients, we must remember we are only experiencing a brief snapshot of their lives. We must constantly remind ourselves that the world of our patients is wide, extending well beyond the doors of the clinic or hospital. We have the privilege of bearing witness to a vulnerable sliver of their lives. It is a profound opportunity to connect, human to human.

Savita Rani is a Brown, cis-het woman and first-generation immigrant settler in Canada. She is a daughter, partner, cousin and friend, and she is also a resident physician in Public Health and Preventive Medicine at University of Saskatchewan. Rani is the current Vice-President of the Canadian Association for Health Humanities. She has a special interest in incorporating experiences from arts, humanities and the outdoors into medical education as tools for teaching, learning and reflection.