The evolution of the healthcare system and the training of new medical practitioners—two concepts that must go hand in hand, now and in the future. This topic was discussed this morning at the UniCamillus Auditorium during the event ‘The healthcare of the future, beyond the boundaries of pathology, a Manifesto for Italy’, organised by the Associazione SIGMA UniCamillus with the support of the Fondazione Dignitas Curae.
It was an important opportunity for UniCamillus students to explore a subject which is of great importance to the University itself. In fact, one of the fundamental principles of the UniCamillus mission is to prepare the new generations of medical practitioners and health professionals to truly place the patient at the centre of the therapeutic process. Thanks to events like this—especially when, as in this case, they are organised and run directly by the students themselves, who show great sensitivity to these issues—the University aims to promote the idea of sustainable healthcare, with an approach based on medical teamwork, as opposed to the current fragmentation of specialisation.
The idea of the Associazione SIGMA is to help medical practitioners and health professionals to progress together, putting into practice what they have learnt from books and trying to embody in an ideal way the true value of white coats. These are the principles behind the Fondazione Dignitas Curae, which has been active for more than 10 years and whose main objective is to rediscover, at a time of crisis in our NHS, a person-centred and sustainable way of providing healthcare, based on a re-humanising view of science and medical care. The foundation’s manifesto states that the concept of health must include not only the physical, but also the emotional and social components. Indeed, health must be understood as both an individual and a relational asset; therefore, ‘caring for a patient’ means providing them with both professional assistance and skills while giving them a touch of humanity, ethically speaking.
The event was moderated by Francesco Ingusci, a UniCamillus student and President of SIGMA, as well as the University’s contact person for the Fondazione Dignitas Curae working group, which includes a representative from each of the medical universities in the Lazio region. “We share these messages all over Italy”, explains Francesco. “We, young people, with all the vitality in us, must be personally committed to improving the healthcare of the future”. During the morning, distinguished guests from the Italian and international medical and academic world took to the stage. The speakers included Dr. Massetti, Director of the Cardiac Surgery Unit at the Policlinico Gemelli Hospital and President of the Fondazione Dignitas Curae; His Excellency Monsignor Mauro Cozzoli, Emeritus Professor of the Theological Faculty of the Pontifical Lateran University; Dr. Maritati, Director of the Vascular Surgery Unit at the Nuovo Ospedale dei Castelli; Alvaro, Coordinator of the Professional Profiles of the Health Sector; Dr. Felici, Coordinator for the project ‘Learning Living Medicine: teaching the medicine of the future’; Dr. Squicciarini, CEO of Squicciarini Rescue, International Training Center American Heart Association.
“As President of SIGMA UniCamillus, I feel responsible for being the voice of all the more than 200 students who belong to this community. When Dr. Massetti contacted me to tell me about the Dignitas Curae manifesto, I immediately thought it could be something that should be shared as widely as possible”, said Francesco Ingusci, who was delighted with the success of this initiative, which involved so many of his fellow UniCamillus students. “We are the future medical practitioners and we feel uncomfortable not being part of a system that should welcome us. In Italy, in theory, we have a high level of medical expertise in all fields, but in practice, unfortunately, it is a very different story. The Dignitas Curae project for future medical education deserves to be continued in order to change this situation. I feel personally responsible for this. If we start today to change the approach to medical education, then tomorrow we could stop looking at the NHS as a terminally-ill system and we could bring it back to a more human condition instead”.
