The Italian Leader Initiative Towards Sustainable, Safe, Participatory, Inclusive Person-Centered Medicine

Paolo Roberti di Sarsina

The Charity Association for Person Centred Medicine has been founded in Bologna, Italy, on 1st December 2007. It is registered at the Unified Charity Register Office of the Republic of Italy, in the Section for Social and Social-Health Assistance. The Mission of the Charity Association for Person Centred Medicine:

• Promoting and protecting health through the humanisation and personalisation of medicine.
• Placing the person, as physical, psychological and spiritual entity at the centre of the therapeutic process.
• Broadening the approach of biomedicine to include the epistemological basis, the diagnostic tools and the treatment systems of Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM), Traditional Medicine (TM) and Non-Conventional Medicine (NCM) inasmuch as they are person-centred medical systems.
• Protecting and promoting the research and the application of all anthropological medical systems, Eastern or Western in origin, respectful of their origin, lineage and paradigm.
• Promoting health through the implementation of the prerequisites of health and education in salutogenetic practices.
• Protecting environments and removing obstacles that could prevent the acquisition or the maintenance of salutogenetic health practices.
• Providing free person centred, Traditional, Non Conventional, Complementary and Alternative Medicine (TM/NCM/CAM) treatments to financially or socially disadvantaged people.
• Facilitating the communication between colleagues and to the public of research updates, diagnosis and treatment in the field of person centred medicine.
• Promoting and undertaking research projects in the field of Person Centred Medicine.

The view is to promote and protect health through the humanisation and personalisation of medicine. It places the advances and practices of biomedicine (modern medicine) in a broader context where the person regains his/her central position both in the diagnostic and therapeutic process. Traditional and Non Conventional Medical Systems have in common an intrinsically per­son-centred view of the human being and illness. Their treatments promote innate healing abilities and greater personal responsibility for healthy behaviour. The Charity Association for Person Centred Medicine aims to promote research and implementation of Traditional and Non Conventional Medical Systems into medical education and healthcare practices. It protects, safeguards, promotes, studies, teaches and applies the wealth of knowledge and the culture of both western and oriental anthropological medical systems, respectful of the origi­nal integrity and tradition of each paradigm and lineage.

Despite considerable advances, Biomedicine does not seem to meet all the needs of an individual. Traditional Medicine (TM) and Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) or Non-Conventional Medicines (NCM) are being used by an increasing number of people because of their person centred, holistic approach that promotes the generation of health (salutogenesis) and active involvement in care on the part of the patient.

In Europe nearly 150 million people use some form of Traditional and Non Conventional Medicine at some point in their lives. The EU is addressing the regulative legislation, research and prevalence of the use of NCM with a pan-European project as part of their EU Health Framework Programme 7 (FP7).

Although each with their differences, Traditional and Non Conventional Medicine systems share a vision of the human being as a physical, psychological and spiritual entity. The physiological or pathological interaction between these aspects can determine health or illness. NCM also studies the interactions between the human being, nature, the cosmos and how these have an impact in health and illness. As well as treating the ill person, they also broadcast the knowledge of how to generate health, salutogenesis.

The treatments of Traditional and Non Conventional Medicine systems are aimed at increasing our innate healing abilities. Person Centred Medicine lies at the interface of Biomedicine and Non Conventional Medicine.

It aims to broaden the knowledge and practices of Biomedicine with the epistemological basis and treatment systems of Non Conventional Medicine for a Medicine that considers the human being in all its aspects.

As a basis for healthcare reform Person Centred Medicine is an inclusive form of healthcare that can provide greater personalisation of treatments to address physical, psychological, spiritual and contextual aspects of illness and health and health promotion or disease prevention in the sense of salutogenetic education and salutogenetic treatments.

About the Author

Prof. Paolo Roberti di Sarsina, MD, is President of the Charity Association for Person Centred MedicineThe Charity’s Legal Office: Via San Vitale 40/3a, 40125 Bologna, Italy. Website http://www.medicinacentratasullapersona.org
E-mail info@medicinacentratasullapersona.org