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Teleonics is an approach to the study of living systems. The latter can be regarded as synergistic collections of processes through which the systems interact with their internal and external environments. Teleonics can serve as a framework for positioning issues of health into the wider context of the fabric of life. There are essentially three webs of processes that are of relevance for a discussion of healthcare, viz, the normal web of the living fabric (Biomatrix), the 'web of disease' (Pathomatrix) and the web of Healthcare. The latter interacts with the first two through the processes of Health Promotion, Disease Prevention and Disease Management. The end result of these interactions is an entirely new web of great complexity that incorporates the processes of all three webs intertwined with each other. This complexity presents a considerable challenge to all those involved in healthcare and can only be untangled with the aid of a process-based methodology, such as teleonics. KEYWORDS: Biomatrix, teleonics, health, disease, healthcare, health promotion