Nearly 90% of cancer patients use the internet to find more cancer information, and 49% of millennials go online the same day they are diagnosed with cancer. 78% of patients believe that the internet increases the ability to make informed decisions and for 71% it also represents an aid in dealing with anxiety and fear. “Correct communication, as the data indicates, is not an option but a duty”, said Rossana Berardi, Professor of Medical Oncology at the Marche Polytechnic University and Director of the Ospedali Riuniti Oncology Clinic of Ancona, upon delivery of the certificates in closing of the first edition of the university specialization course “Communicating cancer”, promoted by the Polytechnic University of the Marches and the Ospedali Riuniti Oncology Clinic of Ancona.
The aim of the course, the first of its kind ever held in Italy, is to train doctors, psychologists, patients, nurses, managers of drug companies to communicate cancer, medicine and health with the involvement of clinicians, teachers and journalists. “A meta-analysis on more than 6,000 patients has shown that social networks are useful tools for controlling the psychic discomfort that affects the majority of people with cancer and for improving their quality of life,” added Berardi. “But at least 30% of news about cancer published on social networks is false and can cause dangerous consequences and lead to postponing or even not following life-saving therapies, resorting to dangerous ‘do-it-yourself’ methods or using alternative tools devoid of scientific validity”.
The closing ceremony also hosted the first edition of the national award “Communicating cancer, medicine and health“. For 2023, Max Allegri (Juventus Coach), Sandra Balboni (Loto OdV President), Rossana Berardi, Mauro Boldrini (AIOM Communications Director), Raffaella Cesaroni (SKY TV), Daniela Minerva (la Repubblica), Luigi Ripamonti (Corriere della Sera), Ilaria Piuzzi (AstraZeneca), Donatella Romani (Medicine and Information). The motivation, for all the winners, is that they have particularly distinguished themselves in the communication of medicine and health, with specific reference to the fight against cancer.
“Our goal is to provide all-round tools to healthcare professionals and to all those who have developed an interest in communication but who still have little awareness of the professional use of digital platforms – explained Marcello D’Errico, Full Professor of the University and member of the Organizing Committee of the specialization course -. Strengthened by the success of the first edition, we decided to give life to the second. We plan to make the course suitable also for the regulations intended for those who work in the public administration, for example for press offices”. The specialization course is part of a larger project, ‘comunicareilcancro’, which includes a dedicated portal (www.comunicareilcancro.it) and profiles on the main social networks. The announcement of the second course will be published in April
“Communicating cancer and, more generally, medicine and health in a correct way – explained Mauro Silvestrini, Dean of the Faculty of Medicine and Surgery of the Polytechnic University of the Marches – represents a weapon to be exploited also in terms of public health and it is a formidable educational tool for the entire population. But, to do this, you need to know the mechanisms of communication. The University has the task of training health professionals and health communication must be part of the study path of the operators. The media, especially social networks, offer an important opportunity to place patients at the center of the health system: in fact, they allow citizens to regain trust, interact and use tools, such as storytelling, to generate dialogue”.