 Thomas McKeown was an influential critic of the biomedical institution (including the work done during its early twentieth century prehistory), having authored the blockbuster volume The Role of Medicine: Dream, Mirage, or Nemesis (1976). McKeown reevaluated the historical record and available evidence to instead hypothesize that the social and economic changes in the West were more responsible for the health improvements than biomedicine’s growth. Put bluntly, he argued that twentieth century modernity (economic development, improved nutrition, etc.) caused populations in the West to get healthier over time, then modernity went on to also cause the growth of contemporary medicine/biomedicine, but the medical advances themselves played a generally secondary role in supporting the health improvements. His works has inspired decades worth of debates over the validity of his bold claims, which have been largely overturned or largely vindicated, depending on whom one asks (Link &amp; Phelan 2002).