Promote better scientific communication in healthcare companies, hospitals, university clinics and IRCCS to improve public health. The goal is to make people understand that communicating correctly is a duty of care and not an option or a choice. To do this, it is necessary to promote and improve the activities of the press offices of Italian health facilities by training both communication professionals and health professionals in a more adequate way. In this way it will be possible to make greater use of the scientific activity carried out and to reach millions of patients, caregivers and citizens more effectively.
This is what the new project proposes “Internal and external communication in healthcare companies: from the press office to digital communication” promoted by the Director General of the PTV Policlinico Tor Vergata Foundation Joseph Quintavalle in collaboration with prof.ssa Rossana BerardiProfessor of Oncology at the Polytechnic University of Marche and with Dr. Mauro Boldrini Director of Communication of the Italian Association of Medical Oncology.
The phases of the project
Starting from February 2023, it will be divided into five different phases and will see health and communication professionals, institutional contacts and representatives of patient associations at work. A survey will be promoted in Italian healthcare companies to analyze the current state of communication (spokespersons, press offices, websites and social media).
The results, elaborated and discussed by a special working group, will then be presented in an institutional forum. From these we will arrive at a project to promote correct and effective information through training activities for health professionals. Specific recommendations will also be written for healthcare companies and quality criteria will be identified to allow an evaluation of communication within healthcare companies and allow them to promote improvement paths.
“In the last twenty years we have witnessed a “corporateization” of hospitals – underlines dr. Joseph Quintavalle, Director General of the PTV Policlinico Tor Vergata Foundation -. This has made it necessary to communicate with both the internal and external environment to enhance the activities and peculiarities of the healthcare companies themselves. However, there are critical issues in favoring the establishment or implementation of qualified press offices that can meet growing needs. Also in the last two decades the speed of information has increased exponentially and now thanks to the web and social networks it is possible to reach millions of users in a few months. Evidence of this inevitable trend has emerged for all of us to see during the Covid-19 pandemic. For all these reasons we have decided to start a project that aims to help our national health system improve on an aspect that is no longer secondary.
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An added value to the project is having in the qualified panel of experts, important scientific journalists and the top representatives of the health professions, such as the Medical Association of Rome with its President Antonio Magithe Rome OPI with its president Maurizio Zega and general practitioners represented by the FIMMG Senior Vice President Pier Luigi BartolettiFurthermore, it is essential to connect the hospital with the territorial network and with family doctors, who must have the possibility of communicating with the professionals of the polyclinic using the enormous technological potential available. This in order to create paths that start citizens’ homes, find adequate answers in hospitals and can return home followed by their trusted doctor.This means that thanks to communication, waiting times, diagnosis and treatment times and service satisfaction can be influenced.
“The University of Tor Vergata embraces this training project which also provides for the integration of digital communication as an emerging and effective dissemination tool – underlines prof. Nathan Leviald’s GhironRector of the University of Rome Tor Vergata – Using all the tools, even the most technological and innovative ones, will allow a more effective action for the benefit of patients and the population”.
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“Medicine and above all oncology are the areas in which fake news is unfortunately most present – says Prof. Rossana Berardi, full professor of Oncology at the Marche Polytechnic University and Director of the Oncology Clinic of the Marche University Hospital and creator of the project -. Every day there is the risk of giving space to anti-scientific positions and ill-prepared communicators who often define themselves as influencers without any preparation. Often they also find space due to the absence or scarce presence, especially on social media, of institutional communicators and representatives of hospitals operating in our country”.
“For this, oncologists and other medical specialists must also be active in all media – concludes Dr. Mauro Boldrini, Communication Director of the Italian Association of Medical Oncology -. In our opinion it is essential to provide specific training and we have already had an important experience with “Communicating cancer, medicine and health“. It is a university specialization course, activated by the Polytechnic University of the Marche, and aimed at doctors and health professionals or anyone with an aptitude in this area, as well as professionals who work in the world of communication”.
The panel of experts and institutions that will follow the project is also made up of scientific journalists from the main Italian newspapers who will bring their contribution to correct and effective communication.