Principal Investigator

Sarah Bigi is an Assistant Professor of Linguistics at Catholic University, Milano (Italy).

She has been working on doctor-patient communication since 2008, progressively intensifying her studies in this field. She has explored the use of the argument from expert opinion in medical consultations and has subsequently become more and more interested with the study of ‘derailed’ vs successful consultations.

In March 2014, Sarah has received a 3-year research grant from the Italian Ministry of Research (MIUR) to develop the project "Healthy Reasoning. Strategies and Mechanisms of Persuasion in Chronic Care".

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Selected publications on doctor-patient communication:

S. Bigi (forthcoming). Can argumentation skills become a therapeutic resource? Results from an observational study in diabetes care. Proceedings of the 8th Conference of the International Society for the Study of Argumentation. Amsterdam: Rozenberg/Sic Sat.

Bigi, S. (2014). Healthy Reasoning: The Role of Effective Argumentation for Enhancing Elderly Patients’ Self-management Abilities in Chronic Care. In: G. Riva, P. Ajmone Marsan, C. Grassi (eds.). Active Ageing and Healthy Living: A Human Centered Approach in Research and Innovation as Source of Quality of Life. Amsterdam: IOS Press, 193-203.

Bigi, S. & Greco Morasso, S., 2012c. Keywords, frames and the reconstruction of material starting points in argumentation. Journal of Pragmatics, 44(10), 1135-1149.

Bigi, S., 2012b. Contextual constraints on argumentation. The case of the medical encounter. In: F.van Eemeren, B. Garssen (eds.). Exploring Argumentative Contexts [AIC 4]. Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 289-303.

Bigi, S., 2012a. Evaluating argumentative moves in medical consultations. Journal of Argumentation in Context, 1(1), 51-65.

Bigi, S., 2011b. Institutional constraints on the (un)sound use of the argument from expert opinion in the medical context. In: Eemeren, F.H., van, Garssen, B.J., Godden, D. & Mitchell, G. (eds.). Proceedings of the 7th Conference of the International Society for the Study of Argumentation. Amsterdam: Rozenberg/Sic Sat., 85-95.

Bigi, S., 2011a. The persuasive role of ethos in doctor-patient interactions. Communication and Medicine 8(1), 63-72.