The world changes. Technology, innovation, increasingly precise treatment strategies, assisted diagnoses, the possibility of teleconsultations and Digital Health are paving the way for a series of prospects of great interest for the future. Obviously there are specialties that can benefit more than others from these advances and neurology is certainly among them, as confirmed by the experts present at the SIN (Italian Society of Neurology) Congress. This discipline is in fact going through a phase of profound transformation, thanks to diagnostic and therapeutic innovations and new care models that are modifying clinical practice and, inevitably, also the role of the neurologist.
“To understand how our profession is changing, we must first consider how neurology is evolving. In this scenario, clinical expertise remains the essential foundation of our activity, but it must be increasingly integrated with a multidisciplinary approach and enriched by new technological and digital skills. Digital medicine and artificial intelligence in fact represent precious tools for improving the collection, sharing and interpretation of clinical information, making patient care increasingly personalized and appropriate. Think, for example, of digital devices that allow you to monitor the movement of a person during daily activities, providing useful information to evaluate the evolution of the disease and guide clinical decisions”
explains Claudio Gasperini, Vice President of SIN.
The value of telemedicine
Telemedicine also plays a central role in this transformation, which today goes far beyond the simple possibility of carrying out a remote visit.
“Thanks also to the work developed with Agenas, a more complex healthcare model is becoming established, which includes televisits, teleconsultation between professionals, telecontrol, telemonitoring and telecooperation. Agenas has made available a national platform that can be used by the Regions, accompanied by resources intended to equip healthcare facilities with the technologies necessary to develop these services. This is a particularly important opportunity for neurology, where the complexity of many pathologies requires the contribution of specialists with different skills”
explains the expert.
Through telecooperation it is possible to connect professionals from different hospital structures, even when certain specialist skills are not available within the same hospital, carrying out remote multidisciplinary assessments even in the most complex clinical cases. This allows dthe overcome organizational difficulties that often make it complicated to bring together multiple specialists at the same time, facilitating discussion and allowing us to offer more timely and targeted responses to the needs of the individual patient.
Targeted training courses
To train the neurologist of the future, the Italian Neurology Society has launched the Digital NeuroHub project, with the aim of preparing neurologists for the challenges of future medicine through a structured and qualified training course. It is not simply a matter of learning to use new technologies, but of acquiring skills that allow digital tools to be effectively integrated into clinical practice, always keeping the doctor’s judgment central. The neurologist of the future will have to know how to use artificial intelligence applications, correctly interpret and manage clinical data, know the ethical implications of new technologies and ensure the protection of patient information. This is why it is essential to develop a rigorous training method that allows clinical, digital and organizational skills to grow together.
“In collaboration with Biogen, two years ago we established a first national course aimed at a selected number of specialists, launching a path aimed at obtaining digital neurologist certification. In two years, around 80 neurologists have already obtained this certification, through the first two editions of the national course organized by SIN. An important result, which has pushed us to further expand the project, with the aim of making these skills accessible to a much wider audience of professionals”
the expert says.
232 participating neurologists, thanks also to regional initiatives, are now completing the training course, at the end of which, in December, they will be able to obtain certification. According to SIN experts, training represents an indispensable condition for technological innovation to translate into a real improvement in assistance. The challenge is to prepare neurologists capable of working increasingly in a network, enhancing multidisciplinary collaboration and strengthening the continuity between hospital and territory which constitutes one of the priorities of the reorganization of the healthcare system. Digital medicine can offer a decisive contribution in this direction, facilitating integration between professionals, structures and services and allowing for more effective and continuous management.
“Our goal is to ensure that research progress, new therapeutic opportunities and technological innovation do not remain isolated achievements, but become part of a care model capable of concretely responding to people’s needs, improving the quality of care, promoting greater patient autonomy and contributing to a better quality of life. This is the vision that guides SIN’s commitment and which makes Digital NeuroHub a strategic investment for the future of Italian neurology”
concludes Gasperini.
