Convergent Medical Systems

Seven core purposes - sources of quality in health services

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After a long and interesting run, Dr. David Kailin retired from consulting at the end of 2009.   This site continues to offer and provide support for CMS Press publications.

The News Desk tab leads to a series of past articles primarily related to federal regulations impacting health care providers.

The FSTH Text tab leads to support materials for the textbook entitled The Fundamentals of Systems Thinking in Healthcare (2nd Edition)

The QCAM Text tab leads to support materials for the textbook entitled Quality In Complementary & Alternative Medicine.

The Purchase tab leads to our e-store where you may purchase CMS Press titles.


A very brief summary of Dr. Kailin's innovative concept of quality in health services, based on seven core purposes, is presented below.

Assessments of quality implicitly or explicitly presume valued ends. The valued ends of health care seem obvious at first glance - to heal and comfort the sick. But health care is a complex social transaction involving many entities, including nature, society, healers, families, and patients. Each entity has fundamental and legitimate ends that are negotiated in the transaction.

The seven core purposes framework describes those intrinsic ends most succinctly as follows:

Ecological .......... biosystemic balance
Societal ............. good of the body politic
Spiritual ............. quest for meaning
Moral .................. attending to suffering
Augmentative .... enhancing capacities
Corporeal ........... bodily treatment
Economic ........... fair exchange


By asking how well we are fulfilling these core purposes (singly and conjointly), we can open distinctive opportunities for quality assessment and quality improvement. By better fulfilling the broader array of core purposes, we can add significant value and satisfaction, even while reducing cost.

A generation ago, George Engel’s bio-psycho-social framework brought a perspective wider than the biomedical model, and became the basis of education for family practice. The seven core purposes framework further expands our understanding of the goals and tasks of medicine.

David Kailin, Ph.D.

Email: kailin@convergentmedical.com


Copyright 2006 - 2010 David Kailin, All Rights Reserved