Transformation of Cancer Care during and after the COVID Pandemic, a point of no return. The Experience of Italy.

Policymakers everywhere struggle to introduce therapeutic innovation while controlling costs, a particular challenge for the universal Italian National Healthcare System (SSN), which spends only 8.8% of GDP to care for one of the world's oldest populations. Oncology provides a telling example, where innovation has dramatically improved care and survival, transforming cancer into a chronic condition. However, innovation has also increased therapy duration, adverse event management, and service demand. The SSN risks collapse unless centralized cancer planning changes gear, particularly with Covid-19 causing treatment delays, worsening patient prognosis and straining capacity. In view of the 750 billion Euro "Next Generation EU", released by the European Union to relieve Member States hit by the pandemic, the SSN tapped a multidisciplinary research team to identify key strategies for equitable uptake of innovations in treatment and delivery, with emphasis on data-driven technological and managerial advancements - and lessons from Covid-19.

Alcune riflessioni prima di tirare le somme

The current crisis is an unprecedented global challenge in terms of its health, economic, social, and geopolitical impact. More than 4 billion people in over 100 countries are living in some sort of lockdown. Each country has chosen its own strategy, adopting a variety of measures in an attempt to fight an unparalleled menace. Although it will take time to draw conclusions on what are the key factors for success in this battle, several preliminary lessons can be learned from those countries that were forced to face the emergency before others. But before assessing, some distinctions should be made First: the pandemic is an episodic phenomenon that shocked regional health systems in Italy. Don’t mistake emergency for normality (the synecdoche risk): regions most affected by the SARS-CoV-2 have a really good quality health care services but unfortunatly helpless to respond in an age of pandemic. Getting it wrong might be the way for learning from mistakes (not for destroying what can still be useful). Second, decisions in a great uncertainty scenario should be changed quickly as in a video game (videogame rationality). Third, our SSN is a resource not only a cost. By acknowledging the central importance of the healthcare system in society, the cost-containment policies of the last few decades that have been waged on healthcare systems around the world need to be reconsidered. By acknowledging the central importance of the healthcare system in society, the cost-containment policies of the last few decades that have been waged on healthcare systems around the world need to be reconsidered. Warnings of the risks of such policies have been neglected for too long. The current epidemic has demonstrated that debilitated healthcare systems can be brought to the brink of collapse with unforeseen consequences for the entire society. Copyright © FrancoAngeli.