Assolombarda, the association of companies of the metropolitan city of Milan and the provinces of Lodi, Monza and Brianza and Pavia, has launched Health Lombardy, a platform dedicated to promotinghealthcare excellence of Lombardy and to offer high quality care proposals to citizens from other countries, both European and non-European. Created in collaboration with the “Lombardy Life Sciences Cluster”, the site aims to present in an organized way the offer of accredited healthcare facilities, both public and private, in the region.
Health Lombardy: an online showcase of healthcare excellence
Health Lombardy is a platform that integrates various centers of healthcare excellence of Lombardy, including the IRCCS Istituto Clinico Humanitas, the IRCCS San Raffaele Hospital, and others. These realities are presented in the portal in an organized way facilitate the search of specific care by users, also divided by body areas.
Health Lombardy is one online showcase open to the world, designed to provide international patients with a complete service. This includes the identification of healthcare facilities and their clinical specificities, as well as support through the network of companies associated with Assolombarda, to guarantee a door-to-door experience. The site offers also remote tele-consultation solutions to allow easier access to second opinions and a more informed choice of treatment path. Furthermore, the best practices of Lombardy's healthcare excellences are presented, which often offer cutting-edge and unique treatments on the international scene.
Italy and the healthcare system
THEItaly ranks at third place in the world for efficiency of the health service, according to Bloomberg, thanks to the quality of services, research and innovation of the structures. This is especially evident in Lombardia, where approximately 1,5 million patients are treated in 208 hospitals every year, of which a significant part comes from abroad. The region boasts numerous university medical departments, research centers and institutes of excellence. Also considering the competitiveness of prices compared to other countries, such as Germany and the USA, the Italian healthcare system emerges as a strategic sector of the country and deserves to be promoted abroad.
Health Lombardy was created precisely for enhance this excellence and promote the internationalization of the sector, increasing awareness of the treatment opportunities offered in Lombardy, even among foreign patients.
“In Lombardy, more than other Italian regions, the solid alliance between public and private has given rise to high standards of care – declared the Director of Life Science of Assolombarda, Cristian Ferraris -. It is no coincidence that our facilities are appreciated at a national and international level - proof of this is the placements in some international rankings, including Newsweek - and are increasingly popular destinations for carrying out highly complex medical services. Through the our Health Lombardy platform we wish to contribute, in harmony with the Lombard Life Sciences Cluster, to the knowledge and valorisation of the offer present in Lombardy: an attractiveness which, as we well know, inevitably produces the circulation of greater resources which are reused in investments and research: two assets which, in perspective, make it more and more solid the regional health service, for the benefit of the community".
Internationalize the Italian healthcare system
According to a model proposed by Ferraris, the internationalization of the healthcare system cannot be limited to attracting foreign patients, but must include others three crucial pillars. These include: attracting clinical trials to promote cutting-edge research, attracting investments and companies to develop innovative products and services through technology transfer, and developing an advanced health technology assessment pathway for guarantee cutting-edge care. Elements that must be interconnected, creating a cycle that starts from research up to patient treatment and returns to stimulate further research, making the increasingly attractive and cutting-edge healthcare system.
