1st International Conference on Health Humanities in Translation

Health Humanities is often defined as an interdisciplinary movement that applies the strategies and methods of humanities to health sciences. It is much more than this.
Health Humanities represents a space of dialogue and challenge for health sciences and humanities. A complex space extending between the tension of the former towards medical knowledge and the attention of the latter towards human sensitivity. The irreducible differense between these two dimensions has fuelled the debate on the possibility of their coexistence in clinical practice and training, raising the issue of the translationability of Health Humanities.
How can the humanities be translated into care processes?
How can future healthcare professionals be trained in this translation practice?

The issue of translating medical knowledge is central to the translational approach, which is based on a circular dynamic that connects three fundamental aspects of medicine: laboratory experimentation, patient care and dialogue with the community (benchside, bedside and community). Translational medicine does not see the laboratory as its starting point, but rather as the continuation of a dialogue with people, from which it originates and to which it tends. Knowledge translation, in fact, can only be effective if it considers the specific human con-text, not only in the application phase but also and above all in the generative phase.
The space for dialogue opened within Health Humanities makes it possible to explore and compare different ways to perform such a translation. By placing at the centre of this space the persons for whom care processes are built and those who build them, Health Humanities represents an attempt to question these processes and, at the same time, an opportunity to find solutions.
This international conference stems from a desire to share our experiences in the practice of Health Humanities and promote debate on the role they play in translating medical knowledge, by people and for people. The aim of the conference is to explore new possibilities for translating Health Humanities into clinical practice, health education, and the well-being of patients, healthcare professionals and students.