Università degli studi di Modena e Reggio Emilia

Patients and Caregivers as Partners in Care: UniMORE Hosts International Conference with Canada and France

Hosted by Professor Michele Zoli, Dean of the Faculty of Medicine and Surgery at UniMORE, the event will conclude three days of activities, beginning with two preparatory workshops on 15 and 16 October. The event is organised by UniMORE’s EduCare Laboratory, based within the Faculty of Medicine and Surgery, with the support of the Tandem Association and in partnership with the Université de Montréal in Canada and Université Côte d’Azur in Nice, France.

The conference will bring together patients and caregivers involved in training through the EduCare Laboratory, Italian, Canadian and French academics, doctors and healthcare professionals, health economists and healthcare organisation directors. Discussions will focus on initiatives already developed in the three countries and on the prospects for a model of care that gives patients and their families an active role in healthcare decision-making, training and organisational processes.

As Dr Giulio Malmusi, President of the Tandem Association, explains: “Partnership in healthcare means an alliance between those receiving care and those providing it, in which patients’ voices should be heard at every level, from university education to clinical care, and from healthcare organisation to research. One strategy that has already been widely and successfully tested in other countries, such as Canada, and developed in Italy by the Tandem Association and the EduCare Laboratory, is to train patients so that they can become trainers themselves, acting as advocates and facilitators of a renewed alliance between those receiving care and those providing it.”

UniMORE has been working towards this goal since 2019, organising a range of advanced professional development courses dedicated to patient education under the direction of Professors Carla Palumbo and Fausta Lui. This experience has helped develop the partnership model, with particular emphasis on patient participation in care pathways and university-level training.

As Professor Carla Palumbo, President of the EduCare Laboratory, points out: “Training is essential to prepare professionals who can facilitate a paradigm shift in the care relationship, fostering partnership between healthcare professionals and patients, particularly in the management of chronic conditions, and thereby enabling a change in perspective and roles. Under this approach, patients, their caregivers and family members become active participants and ‘partners in care’, working together across all aspects of clinical, interpersonal and organisational care.”

The international collaboration, strengthened over the years through training initiatives developed with Canada, is one of the key elements of the event. The conference is being promoted by Professor Maria Stella Padula, Director of the EduCare Laboratory, together with Professor Nicolas Fernandez and Professor Marie Claude Vanier of the Université de Montréal.

Professor Padula also highlights the potential impact of patient involvement on the quality and efficiency of healthcare, noting that “there is evidence that partnership improves clinical outcomes and patient satisfaction, while reducing costs associated with, for example, visits to emergency departments, hospital admissions and readmissions, unnecessary use of healthcare resources and other factors.”

“The international conference on 17 October and the preparatory workshops taking place on the preceding days, 15 and 16 October, aim to share experiences of partnership between patients, caregivers and healthcare professionals developed in Italy, Canada and France, and to explore how these initiatives might evolve. The objectives include formal recognition of the role of patients as partners in teaching and research, as is already the case in France; extending the training model developed at the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia to other institutions across Italy; and expanding collaboration between patient trainers and healthcare organisations,” concludes Professor Maria Stella Padula.

The conference on 17 October will be broadcast live on tv.UniMORE.it from 8.30 am to 1 pm, with language translation provided through subtitles.

Categorie: International - english, Notizie_eng