Application of the Meikirch Model to independent medical evaluations for Social Security eligibility determinations in Switzerland and potential for use by physicians in many other situations.

The Meikirch Model of Bircher and Kuruvilla provides a new and very interesting definition of health and disease, based on a biopsychosocial framework and the idea of an interaction of an individual with social and environmental determinants of health. It is a modern systems approach, not only for acute, but particularly for chronic diseases. For this reason, I have adopted this analytic approach for conducting independent medical evaluations in the Swiss system of Social Security.