“Clinical engineers today also deal with development, crisis situations, international cooperation and the management of emergencies in the war sector or caused by disasters, precisely because technologies offer essential and innovative tools for the management of extreme and critical situations” . Umberto Vitale, health technology coordinator at Unops, the UN agency for development projects, said this this morning, in one of the sessions of the 24th Clinical Engineering Conference (AIIC) underway in Rome until 18 May.
Concepts confirmed by Carmelo Minniti, member of the AIIC board, among the promoters of the two specific sessions dedicated to the topic this morning. “We are entering an era in which our profession enters into relationships with worlds with which we did not previously communicate – he explained – areas that require technological equipment and competent professionals to manage them. For this reason the two sessions of the 2024 Conference dedicated to international development and the experiences of biomedical management in the military field were considered by the association to be particularly innovative and useful. These are sessions from which we, as Aiic, expect great activities also in the future, both for the relationships that are being created in these sectors and also. due to the interest of many young clinical engineers who see it as a path to develop for their curriculum and work experiences”.
The symposiums were attended by both international cooperation experts, including representatives of the Community of Sant’Egidio and the National Institute for the Promotion of the Health of Migrant Populations – INPM – reports a note – and representatives of the armed forces with direct responsibility for the management of health services and biomedical technologies. Inspector Admiral Cesare Fanton of the Italian Navy presented the activities of the Vulcano ship engaged as a ‘hospital’ at sea in the context of humanitarian operations, focusing in particular on the missions following the outbreak of the Israel-Palestine crisis, which led to a presence for approximately 2 months in front of the Gaza Strip, carrying out 437 services. Again illustrating the experiences of the Vulcano ship, the pharmacist officers of the Navy, Captain Alessandro Fontanelli and Lieutenant Marinella Patané, then spoke, illustrating the ability to manage 93% oxygen in self-production, a decisive element in the management of patients, especially in the context of migrations in the Mediterranean.
Furthermore – continues the note – Colonel Nicola Ramundo and Captain Simone Evangelista, of the Health and Veterinary Command, Higher Institute of Interforce General Staff, described how the health structures are being structured in those crisis areas in which the Italian armed forces are present (including Bosnia, Kuwait, Iraq, Lebanon, Libya and Niger), with particular reference to the correct design and management of healthcare technologies and the support that experts in the same equipment are called upon to offer. Major Daniele Pichelli, of the Air Force, therefore brought the experience of the Air Force medical corps in collaboration with clinical and biomedical engineers, with specific examples referring to emergency medical transports, both as civil healthcare support – for example in the Covid 19 period – and in the context of assistance in the territories of operation.
Broadening the view to an international panorama, Claudio Zanotto and Elodie Winizuk of NATO-Nspa shared the vision of the Atlantic alliance in the context of the acquisition and management of devices and technologies in critical areas such as Kabul or Ukraine, while two French professionals – Emmanuel Marry and Sabrina Solinas – have brought their biomedical experience to the service of the transalpine armed forces, where the collaboration between clinical engineering and the military health service is already operational, structured and daily.
The set of contents, presented for the first time to a non-military professional audience, confirms that the relationship between Italian clinical engineers and the armed forces is in a phase of great development, also given that, as Andrea Fisher and Stefano Stupiggia underlined, among the promoters and coordinators of the sessions, “AIC professionals themselves are often involved in the design and maintenance of equipment for military healthcare facilities”. It is also confirmed that the management of biomedical technologies in military contexts presents particularly stimulating professional challenges, as stated in conclusion by Fisher and Stupiggia, who indicate “the need, starting immediately, to strengthen collaboration both in terms of planning and presence of AIIC professionals in operational locations. Today the great availability for collaboration between the various bodies of the armed forces and the opening of military realities to ‘secular’ professional realities favor the possibility of thinking in a new and stimulating way about the emergency interventions sector. , to contribute to an efficient and safe healthcare action such as that offered to civilians who are ‘rescued’ by the Italian military”.
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