Cristine Palaga is an activist anthropologist who firmly believes in the heuristic and human potential of the social science discourse. Currently, she focuses on creating a critical academic space capable of highlighting the critical issues within the post-socialist medical system—as experienced by the key actors who produce and reproduce it (the pathology itself, patients, family members, medical staff, policymakers, etc.). This work is coupled with the development of policies designed to avoid further restricting access to quality healthcare services. Over the past decade, Palaga has studied—from an emic perspective—the social dynamics of informal exchanges within Romanian hospitals, demonstrating how these exchanges not only strategically oscillate between the anthropological categories of gift and commodity but also serve to counter medical dominance; that is, they replace the "medical gaze" with a non-hierarchical, non-paternalistic perspective, while compelling medical staff to engage in a form of reciprocity that acknowledges the other's humanity through the personalization of the therapeutic or care relationship.