Epistemic Justice and Disparities in Care

Epistemic injustice is a concept that describes how someone’s knowledge is devalued by another person or a system. It is present in healthcare when a person’s knowledge of their body, their symptoms, or their lived experience is seen as lesser than or even as not relevant to clinical knowledge. At the systems level, it exists when general or collective knowledge prevents a clinician from being able to comprehend the knowledge or experience of the patient. This issue of Journal of Pediatric Ethics explores epistemic injustice in pediatrics.