A total of 256 beds, 42 of which are in ordinary intensive care and 214 in sub-intensive care, an investment of 180 million by the Sicilian Region plus 15 million in investment for the project by Upmc (University of Pittsburgh medical center) . These are some numbers of what was baptized Ismett 2, a natural continuation of Ismett, the Mediterranean Institute for transplants which is a center of excellence in the transplant sector and a reference point in the Mediterranean basin created twenty years ago thanks to the partnership. between the Sicilian Region, through the Arnas Civico di Palermo, and the Upmc to which the Ri.Med Foundation was added in 2017, established by the Presidency of the Council of Ministers, with the aim of promoting, supporting and conducting research projects and programs in the field of biotechnology.
“The Upmc adventure in Sicily began over 20 years ago, when we courageously launched an innovative model of public-private partnership in healthcare with the Sicilian Region, the success of which has led Ismett to become a reference point for patients. Sicilians, Italians and internationals – says Jeffrey Romoff, president and CEO of Upmc -. Upmc’s mission is to develop and make available innovative treatments and therapies capable of changing the lives of patients, and today with Ismett 2 we have the opportunity to define a new hospital model, conceived taking into account both the need to provide care to patients suffering from chronic non-communicable diseases, and to quickly create areas in which to manage the serious clinical manifestations of epidemic or pandemic diseases, with the great help of the best technologies and an international network of skills ».
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The biomedical cluster in Carini in the Palermo area
And it is precisely in Carini, in the same area where the construction site for the Ri.Med Foundation’s Center for Biotechnology and Biomedical Research is open, that Ismett 2 will be built to which traditional transplant programs and high specialization to which the advanced programs of oncology, orthopedics and neuroscience will be added. «Ismett 2 – says the president of the Sicilian Region Nello Musumeci – is projected into a Mediterranean dimension. We do not want to be competitive with the countries of Northern Europe but a point of reference for those of the Euro-Afro-Asian basin. The future of Sicily, in fact, lies in its Mediterranean centrality, not only geographic, but also economic and cultural. We must respond to the needs of millions and millions of citizens of the South who seek Europe in the cities of the North, to whom, instead, we must give the opportunity to find it here in Sicily: the first strip of European land just 75 kilometers from the coasts of the African continent. With Ismett 2 we will be able to guarantee highly specialized interventions, reducing the painful journeys of hope ».
What the benefits are in perspective is soon said: «Together with the Research Center of the Ri.Med Foundation, Ismett 2 will be decisive for the creation of a cluster for biomedical care and research. It is estimated that with its 256 beds, Ismett 2 will have a positive impact on the Sicilian economy for 270 million euros a year, which rises to 386 million euros together with the research center of the Ri.Med Foundation, and this without add the enhancement of research activities in terms of innovation, intellectual property, production and marketing ». To which must be added the 41 million savings per year for so-called passive mobility.
Project entrusted to Renzo Piano Building Workshop
Numbers that certainly give the idea of what the challenge is in many respects «both in terms of medical innovation and timing: in the span of twelve months, just in a year, we are moving from the design idea to the executive design. It is a record. We are already hoping to start work on the construction site at the beginning of next year »says the regional councilor for health, Ruggero Razza. The project will be developed by the Renzo Piano Building Workshop studio, with Progetto Cmr. «Hospitals – architect Renzo Piano – are places of medical excellence that today must respond even better to the need for humanity. It is felt from all over the world and the pandemic that has haunted us for more than a year has shown it. In the hospital there is a sense of everything and, together with medical efficiency, there is a new dimension made of hope, aspirations and beauty. A hospital has to heal, it has to be hospitable and it has to give comfort, because being in a beautiful place also has a therapeutic value. Hospitals then become a place of rebirth, humanity and respect. Places of passion, understood both as suffering and as an impulse. Fortunately, architecture is not only the art of responding to needs, but also to desires and, above all, to hopes ».