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Short abstract:

This paper aims to explore, through a research based in Italy, how medical anthropology can influence the transformation of established practices of care and scientific knowledge production, while trying to intervene in the healthcare system without losing its critical approach.

Long abstract:

In recent years, particularly after the “syndemic”, the appeal of “humanising” biomedical knowledge has become apparent, prompting also a shift from a hospital-centred health system to a proactive, community-based one. However, this transformative shift often encounters obstacles as local health authorities struggle with a lack of tools and expertise to implement these indications, opening spaces for other disciplines, such as medical anthropology.

A similar opening has emerged in Rimini (Italy), where my PhD is currently taking place, alongside a research project with the Centre for International and Intercultural Health aimed at co-designing the process of reorganisation of the city's health system.

Through in-depth interviews with local health professionals at different hierarchical levels - from clinical governance to general practitioners – and participant observation of key health services for a community-based health care system, the research seeks to implement transformative actions, without letting go of the theoretical and critical framework of the social sciences. In fact, as a medical anthropologist, you are often called upon to intervene as an expert able to provide spendable knowledge and solutions and therefore challenged to find convergence between a critical analysis – the inherent need of the discipline to unravel historical and cultural aspects and to question existing practices – and a practical intervention in healthcare services.

Drawing some preliminary results from the ethnography, the paper aims to illustrate how medical anthropology can influence the transformation of established practices of care and scientific knowledge production, navigating the complexities of theoretical frameworks and practical applications.