The Seminar discussions highlighted the divide that exists in Italy today between the core research sector and the business world. It was noted that there is a lack of osmosis capable, on the one hand, of making the most of potential and, on the other, of integrating it into a productive strategy to support the country’s economy. There is a need for the State to coordinate research centers, health authorities, industry and the regulatory sphere, in accordance with policy choices formulated on the basis of the health needs of the country. A national undertaking of this order would enable: support for innovation to be reconciled with the need to observe health expenditure ceilings; industry to be better advised in making investments and the creation of spin-off enterprises to be encouraged; and targeted training to be organized with a view to producing increasingly more competent researchers and controlling the quality of research results by applying standard and transparent merit-based criteria.
The aging of Italy’s population was discussed in terms of its effects on the future. Long life, which has increasingly come to mean “active long life”, needs to be seen as an opportunity and a challenge, not merely as a social and economic burden. Indeed, it was observed that the aging of the population has both social and health implications. It is necessary to rethink the ways in which older people can remain within the workforce, bearing in mind the implications for the contributions-based pension scheme, the importance of not depriving younger people of jobs, and the social benefits for older persons themselves (such as combating loneliness and depression). The welfare sector already provides examples of jobs that are beneficial to both society and older people (such as in the fields of voluntary work, youth training and family support), which demonstrate that older people can constitute a valuable economic resource. As regards the health-related aspects of an aging population, the participants noted that, on the one hand, there is a need to invest in prevention in order to increase the proportion of older people who are healthy and postpone the onset of ill-health for as long as possible, and, on the other, to provide incentives for research into diseases typical of old age, which are numerous and entail the need for appropriate treatments.
The seminar participants were also given a presentation on the Patto della Salute (or Health Pact), a new legislative instrument aimed at bringing about genuine and significant healthcare reform linked to the need to contribute to public deficit reduction efforts. The key points of this Government agreement include the introduction of standardized healthcare costs, monitoring of the efficiency of regional health administration, recruitment of managers to oversee the organizational and financial aspects of public health authorities and the introduction of an e-health portal, with a view to ensuring that citizens are provided with more efficient and accessible services.