Abstract

MORENO-LEIVA, Germán Mauricio; ALVAREZ-ZUNIGA, Miguel Ángel  and  ARIAS-POBLETE, Leónidas Eduardo. A complex perspective on the etiology of diseases. rev.fac.med. [online]. 2019, vol.67, n.1, pp.97-101. ISSN 0120-0011.  https://doi.org/10.15446/revfacmed.v67n1.64840.

Although the goal of medical research is to understand better how the body and its functioning relate to dysfunctional patterns and how they generate pathologies, most current efforts focus on small questions using increasingly detailed data. However, it might be possible to successfully approach patients by taking a broader look at body mechanisms, from a global perspective, and thinking about how dysfunctions or pathologies can trigger other problems.

The body can be understood as a complex system or network in which dysfunctional patterns arise from the interaction between multiple physical and functional levels. Achieving greater progress with patients will depend, fundamentally, on the properties and relationships of pathologies, dysfunctions and tools that are available or should be developed in order to study pathology-dysfunction mechanisms.

Keywords : Health; Disease; Causality (MeSH).

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