Activity areas

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Clinical and scientific activity
UPMC Italy focuses mainly on transplantation and oncology. However, thanks to its affiliation with UPMC and with the University of Pittsburgh, UPMC Italy offers clinical excellence in other areas, from emergency medicine to neurosurgery, and from sports medicine to cardiac surgery.

At ISMETT, the clinical and scientific activities are focused on the treatment of patients with serious diseases affecting vital organs. The treatment of terminal organ failure has changed radically thanks to transplantation procedures, including living-donor transplantation, considered a valid therapeutic option for otherwise irreversible clinical cases. However, transplantation is not the only solution for end-stage organ failure. Some serious pathologies can be treated and resolved with medical therapies, surgeries, and radiology and endoscopy procedures. In fact, our services are also available to patients who do not need transplantation, but suffer from complex diseases.

UPMC Hillman Cancer Center at San Pietro FBF in Rome and UPMC Hillman Cancer Center at Villa Maria in Mirabella Eclano (Avellino) provides diagnostic techniques, treatment protocols, and advanced radiotherapy, including stereotactic radiosurgery to patients affected with oncologic diseases. The most advanced linear accelerator on the market today, the TRUEBEAM STx, available at the Centers, can deliver high dosages of radiation more quickly and precisely, resulting in shorter treatments and minimal side effects.

At the UPMC Institute for Health Chianciano Terme patients undergo customized screening programs in order to prevent diseases such as metabolic syndrome, cardiac diseases, and gastrointestinal pathologies, in a Center equipped with the most modern, high-definition devices, and a highly qualified team of specialists. The Center also offers digestive endoscopy exams and customized programs to modify lifestyle based on a healthy diet and appropriate amount of physical exercise. Prevention of liver diseases, digestive system diseases, and cardiovascular disorders is a key element for healthy and active ageing.

Research
The University of Pittsburgh, UPMC’s, academic partner, ranks among the world’s top universities and research centers. Since 1997, the University of Pittsburgh has ranked among the top 10 institutions that receive research funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH). In the last few years, UPMC Italy has undertaken significant research activities capable of attracting national, European, and American funding, and providing training and employment. The Regenerative Medicine and Cellular Therapies Unit’s (GMP facility) research and production activity supports ISMETT’s transplant and cell therapy clinical programs for the treatment of end-stage organ failure. The Unit’s medium-term goal is to become a center of reference for cell production, storage, and distribution, and to meet the demand for cells from other Mediterranean centers that are starting cell therapy programs, in collaboration with the Ri.MED Foundation. ISMETT’s Regenerative Medicine and Cellular Therapies Unit shares many research fields with Ri.MED, which, not yet equipped with its own clinical facilities, has developed its research programs at ISMETT’s laboratories since 2008. The Ri.MED Foundation’s fields of research include biomedical engineering, neuroscience, and molecular imaging, in vivo preclinical studies, development of vaccines and biomedical devices, and new regenerative medicine techniques that could one day render organ transplants obsolete.

Management
UPMC Italy focuses on continual improvement of patient care standards and corporate operations, and on optimizing scheduling processes for consults and treatments, and administrative procedures for patients and staff. Management services include systems designed to improve patient safety, access to care, planning of consults, clinical service documentation, insurance management and commercial practices, managing contracts, planning of resources, management of materials, and payment systems. Computer systems and continuing IT support, aimed at improving corporate processes, safety, and services, allowed IRCCS – ISMETT to become one of the first digital and paperless hospitals in Europe, both from the clinical and administrative standpoints.