How to optimize the care of patients with multiple sclerosis (MS)? How can we make services increasingly effective, efficient and close to people? These are some of the questions from which the discussions began today at the conference “’Programming, taking charge, humanization. Implementing PDTAs in the MS network”, organized by the Italian Multiple Sclerosis Association (Aism) with the non-conditioning support of Roche, to discuss concrete strategies to improve the management of the disease and the quality of life of patients.
If patients are protagonists, research and healthcare improve
by Letizia Gabaglio 30 January 2024
Barometer data and gaps in services
The starting point of the discussions was the data coming from the Aism 2024 Barometer, which highlighted the presence still today of important gaps in the assistance of people with MS. According to the data collected by Aism, in fact, for more than half of people with multiple sclerosis there is a lack of coordination between social and health services, and where present this is far from clear. The efficiency of the services themselves is also far from optimal: around a third of patients wait too long for an MRI, 24.7% experience delays in check-ups, 46.9% are dissatisfied with access to rehabilitation , 45.2% report a lack of psychological support and 19.6% consider home care inadequate. Added to this are the problems of staff shortages (a reality for eight out of ten MS clinical centers) and the difficulty in managing clinical data for over half of the centers.
Effective and “humane” care and assistance
“Over half of people complain of difficulties in obtaining timely and adequate responses to their health and social needs – commented the national president Francesco Vacca – This is why Aism has set the objective of creating a care and assistance network that is not only effective, but also humane, and where citizens are an active part of the care path. Humanization and Pdta (Diagnostic-Therapeutic Assistance Paths, ed.) represent the pillars of this vision”.
The project
Since 2020, 16 company PDTAs have been involved, with a progressive expansion that has reached over 80 clinical centers throughout the national territory, benefiting 4,000 patients. “Through humanization, we aim to make the best experiences replicable and guarantee increasingly personalized and inclusive care paths – he added Mario Alberto BattagliaPresident of the Italian Multiple Sclerosis Foundation (Fism) – From our scientific observatory it clearly emerges how corporate and inter-company PDTAs manage to involve more professionals and guarantee interdisciplinary assistance, with positive impacts for the person and the healthcare system”.
Almost one million euros to support research and patients
by Tiziana Moriconi 03 April 2024
Pdta and territorial networks
Results that must reach any patient on Italian territory. “Our objective is that each Region and network context of local services, starting from the reference MS Centre, adopts organizational models that fully respond to the needs of people with MS, adapting to the characteristics of local systems – added the Director of Business General and Institutional Relations of Aism, Paolo Bandiera – This project underlines the importance of co-programming and co-planning that involves decision-makers, professionals and patients, to orient and qualify priorities and systems, and improve services through an increasingly person-centred system”.
