On Saturday, the Oncological Institute of Romagna celebrated what Professor Dino Amadori has always defined as “the beating heart of the organization”, those who “donate what is most precious we have, time”: the group of volunteers who, every day, in a totally free and altruistic way, they provide service and assistance to patients who suffer, to facilitate the path of care for those most in need.
The Palacongressi di Bellaria has opened its doors to solidarity which returns to the presence, as a sign of rebirth and a restart towards an increasingly desirable normalization of human relations while not forgetting that the Covid emergency is far from behind. Great emotions then, but also a lot of research and a lot of science: the first part of the conference saw the participation of Dr. Fabio Falcini, head of the Romagna Cancer Registry, and Mattia Altini, health director of the Ausl Romagna, who did a little ‘the point of the situation of the fight against cancer in our land, to respond to the concerns of all regarding the possible slowdown of cancer programs in terms of prevention, early diagnosis and laboratory work towards new and increasingly effective treatments.
“Romagna is an area with a high incidence of female tumors, among which the most common is by far breast cancer, but it also has the highest data in terms of survival – Falcini explained – the same thing can be said for male neoplasms, in which the situation is more varied but in which the prostate cancer is in any case the master. In Romagna, therefore, we are doing well and continue to do well: the incidence is growing but only because we live longer, and survival continues to increase. People who are diagnosed with this type are more likely to live, recover or become chronic. During the lockdown we had two and a half months of blocking of screenings, but in a few months we made up for what was lost , doubling or even tripling the activity at times. This reconfirms us that we are lucky and we live in a very virtuous area “.
Altini echoed him. “The choice we made in August 2020 was to set up hospital care not on Covid facilities and non-Covid facilities, aware that this pandemic would have an impact especially on the most fragile patients, whom we could not afford to leave behind. to reduce our activity as little as possible, trying to postpone those non-serious situations, which we could afford to delay without putting anyone’s health at risk. Today we are recovering across the board. As for Covid, currently the Delta variant represents 100% of the variants present in our area, but we have principals and we are prepared to face it. We can look to winter with optimism: on the other hand, Romagna has always had low employment figures for intensive care, which has allowed us to give also a hand to the neighboring areas in greater difficulty For this I can only thank the line drawn by Prof. A Madori, when he proposed to unify the AUSL of Romagna: at the time the vision of the IOR founder was not clear to me, but it allowed us to face this emergency much better “.
As expected, the memory of Professor Amadori was also a cornerstone of the speech by Luca Panzavolta, the new president of the IOR: “I first, but also all my colleagues, know what we lost when our Founder passed away, however we are aware of having to carry out his work with his own love and with his same passion, striving to understand what his vision could be towards future challenges. He is a heavy witness but we gladly take on, with great sense About the future, we are very aware of our history and our roots but we continue to move forward: the next challenges will be the Prime Center, the structure that will provide Romagna with a fundamental facility for prevention and integrative medicine. that improves the treatment path for patients, and the support of the opening of the Oncological Pharmacy at the Irst “.
“I thank the whole world of IOR volunteering – he concluded -. It is thanks to all of you present, and to those who preferred to stay at home for the emergency situation but still donate their time to our services for cancer patients, which we are still here after more than 40 years of taking care of the needs of the territory. A special thought goes to my predecessor, Domenico Scarpellini, who steered our organization with great passion and good will through the most complicated moment, after the death of Professor Amadori and in the midst of a situation like the one that created Covid “.
Of the same opinion also the general director of the IOR, Fabrizio Miserocchi: “Professor Amadori did not leave just a memory: he left a memory and a method that continues embodied in the people who live and feel his same passion for those who suffer: this is the great beauty that our Founder left us The history of the IOR is the history of a community, and this is its great strength: this is why we have managed to be close to those who suffer even in a period of social distancing. We quickly implemented online assistance services and adapted those in presence so that they could be used in total safety: this is demonstrated by the data we have about our activities “.
“There were 39 families of cancer patients most in difficulty that we helped at home thanks to the work of our health workers, for a total of 610 visits and 972 hours in the patient’s bed. 261 women in chemotherapy to whom we donated an oncological wig – he added -. 397 patients were alone or not autonomous accompanied from home to hospital facilities and back, for a total of over 170 kilometers traveled. Let’s not forget the great support for the activities designed for Oncohematology patients Pediatrics of Rimini, and the contribution made in order to establish the Faculties of Medicine and Surgery of the University of Bologna in Forlì and Ravenna. A great commitment that we will continue to carry on, aware of our roots but always with an eye to challenges future “.
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