The “Hemophilia in the Third Millennium: Access to Treatments, Social Aspects, Projects” symposium, an event coordinated by Dr. Roberto Santi (Director of the Hemostasis Center of the Hospital of Alessandria) and developed with the unconditional support of Kedrion Biopharma, took place in Alessandria, Piedmont (Italy) on 27 September. The event was an opportunity to take stock of hemophilia patient care and current available treatments. Patient associations and hemophilia center directors from other Regions attended the event, which featured a lecture by leading international hemophilia and blood diseases expert Professor Victor Blanchette, of Toronto’s SickKids Hospital, on the treatment plans and models being used for hemophilia in emerging countries.
The event focused on the Regional implementation of the State-Regions Agreement on “Defining Regional and Interregional Plans for Patients with Congenital Bleeding Disorders (Malattie Emorragiche Congenite, or MEC)”, much discussed also during the initiatives organized to mark World Hemophilia Day 2018 last 17 April.
Piedmont is one of the Regions where implementation of this agreement is already at an advanced stage: MEC “expert centers” have already been identified – the one in Alessandria plus two in Turin and one in Ivrea – which are being reorganized and upgraded with the aim of establishing an integrated network of which other Regional Health Agencies will also be part.
“Thanks to this new organization, we are in a position to pursue further objectives,” explained Dr. Roberto Santi. “First of all, ensuring equal access to services so that diagnosis is appropriate and timely, facilitate access to treatment plans at specialized centers and launch preventive measures. By implementing the indications outlined in the State-Region Agreement, we will also create significant management savings, improve the quality of services, develop a network that connects centers with expertise in this field to other regional facilities,” concluded Santi, “as well as offering patients treatment options in their home Regions, thereby avoiding medical tourism to other Regions”.
