The decree indicating the names of the 30 non-legal members of the new Superior Council of Health (Css), the technical advisory body of the Minister of Health, has been signed. There are ten women, compared to the three present in the outgoing formation, and many confirmations, including those of Franco Locatelli, Sergio Abrignani and Giuseppe Remuzzi. Among the new names, however, the rector of the Life and Health San Raffaele University of Milan Enrico Gherlone, the director general of the Higher Institute of Health (Iss) Andrea Piccioli and Luca Richeldi, full professor of Respiratory Diseases at the Catholic University From Rome.
The Superior Health Council is renewed every 3 years and has, among its duties, that of expressing a mandatory opinion on national regulations and international conventions of public health. It includes 29 members “by right”, including the general directors of the Ministry of Health, the president of the Higher Institute of Health, the director of the Agency for Regional Health Services (Agenas) and that of the Italian Medicines Agency (Aifa). In addition to these, every 3 years, 30 “non-legal” members are nominated, chosen from among the leading experts in health matters and with skills ranging from different clinical areas.
Among the new names indicated in the decree signed by the Minister of Health Roberto Speranza, that of Eleonora Porcu, associate professor of Gynecology and Obstetrics at the University of Bologna, Filippo Crea, full professor of Cardiology at the Catholic University of Rome, Anna Odone, full professor of Public hygiene at the University of Pavia, Luca Richeldi, director of pneumology at the Gemelli Polyclinic in Rome, and Maria Del Zompo, full professor of pharmacology at the University of Cagliari.
Among the confirmations, in addition to well-known faces, such as that of the outgoing president Franco Locatelli, director of Pediatric Oncohematology of the Child Jesus of Rome, of Sergio Abrignani, full professor of General Pathology at the University of Milan and of Giuseppe Remuzzi, director of the Institute of Pharmacological Research Mario Negri, there are also Maria Grazia Masucci, full professor of Virology at the Karolinska lnstitutet in Stockholm and Giovanni Scambia scientific director of the Gemelli Irccs Polyclinic Foundation in Rome. Also confirmed in the team were Fabrizio Starace, director of the Mental Health Department of the AUSL of Modena, Marco Ferrari, full professor of odontostomatological diseases at the University of Siena, and Paolo Vineis, full professor of Environmental Epidemiology at Imperial College London.