Health and epistemic injustice at Festivalfilosofia

The Festivalfilosofia is a three-day public event held in the city of Modena and the nearby towns of Carpi and Sassuolo in Italy. It's a highly attended festival, drawing about 95,000 participants last year, with its YouTube channel boasting 45,000 subscribers. 

Official image of the 2024 edition of the Festival

This year, among the 52 philosophers and cultural figures invited to speak was Elisabetta Lalumera, who works at the University of Bologna and is part of the EPIC project team. On Sunday morning, September 15th, Elisabetta gave a lecture on the different concepts of health and well-being in medicine. Each concept not only describes facts but also conveys values, meaning that selecting a particular concept of health influences choices in care, research, patient support, and the doctor-patient relationship. The audience was large and diverse.

Elisabetta Lalumera at Festivalfilosofia

Later in the afternoon, Elisabetta shared the stage with Claudio Vagnini, Director of the University Hospital of Modena, where they discussed the humanization of healthcare. On this occasion, Elisabetta focused on epistemic injustice in healthcare. The audience, primarily composed of healthcare professionals, listened as she explained how this form of injustice often arises from unconscious biases. 

Panel discussion on humanizing medicine

Like cognitive biases, negative stereotypes toward certain groups, including patients, are hard to overcome, but healthcare professionals can learn to recognize and address them. Becoming familiar with the concept of epistemic injustice—without perceiving it as a reason to blame—can help healthcare professionals live their roles with greater awareness and fulfilment.

A chapter written by Elisabetta Lalumera on the promises of digital health in tackling epistemic injustice will be published in a forthcoming open-access book entitled Epistemic Justice in Mental Healthcare: Recognising Agency and Promoting Virtues Across the Life Span (Palgrave).