GIMBE was born in 1996 in Sicily, from the intuition of the chairman Nino Cartabellotta, a doctor, now recognised as one of the most authoritative research and healthcare experts in our country, based in Bologna since 2006 and becoming a Foundation in 2010. Independent research, training and scientific information activities are the focus of the Foundation's activity in order to improve people's health and contribute to the sustainability of a fair and universal public health service. Lucrezia Lanzani interviews Elena Cottafava, general secretary of the Fondazione GIMBE, for FARE INSIEME Charity
FARE INSIEME CHARITY is the spin-off of the FARE INSIEME project dedicated to the presentation of some onlus and non-profit associations with roots in the area around Bologna, Ferrara and Modena and that carry out extraordinarily important and crucial work for the entire community. Here are some of their stories
by Lucrezia Lanzani*
“Evidence: objective
importance that something has, such as to make it undeniable.”
In 1996, thanks to the
chairman Nino Cartabellotta, GIMBE (Gruppo Italiano per la Medicina Basata
sulle Evidenze - Italian Group for Evidence-Based Medicine) was born, with the
aim of spreading Evidence-based Medicine in Italy. A practice born in the Anglo-Saxon
world, with the aim of encouraging the transition from an opinion-based
approach to a concrete, evidence-based approach. In 2010, the Fondazione GIMBE
was established. For more than 25 years, GIMBE has been disseminating and
applying its “know-how” by: formulating clinical, healthcare, organisational
and managerial questions; developing research strategies; producing “evidence-reports”
in which summaries of the best evidence are collected and used to create real
digital libraries.
“The healthcare
professional must remain continuously updated through databases that contain
bibliographic resources and recent studies on pathologies, this allows him/her
to develop the best diagnoses and treatments for the patient”, underlines Elena
Cottafava, general secretary of the Fondazione GIMBE. In 2013, the Foundation
launched the #SalviamoSSN campaign, which aims to raise awareness among
politicians, health professionals and citizens of the need to put the National
Health Service back at the centre of public interest and not only save it, but
also relaunch it, thanks also to a newly formed national civic network of
people and organisations who believe in the value of public health.
Furthermore, since 2016 it has published the “Report on the National Health
Service” every year, a document which aims to raise awareness among the
population of public health as an indispensable social value. Since that year,
the GIMBE Observatory has been active to continuously and systematically
monitor the responsibilities and actions of those directly involved, with the
aim of obtaining the most from public funds invested in healthcare.
Over the
last three years, the Fondazione GIMBE has conducted independent monitoring of
the COVID-19 pandemic and the vaccination campaign, disseminating information
in a clear and concise way, even providing professionals, citizens and the
media with simple graphics free of charge to help them understand the progress
of the epidemic in Italy and around the world better.
“One of the primary
objectives of the Fondazione GIMBE is to improve health literacy, starting with
young people. For this reason, 'La salute Tiene Banco' (Health Holds Bench) was
born, a project aimed at high school students, to prepare them for a future in
which they will be the true protagonists of the healthcare world, raising their
awareness of the constitutional right to health protection. This consists of a
series of meetings, in which over 1,000 students from schools in Bologna have
already participated, which aims to provide the tools to recognise and 'fight'
fake health news and fully understand the functioning of the National Health
Service”, highlights Cottafava again.
“The Fondazione GIMBE is
an independent organisation that does not receive any type of public funding,
all projects are carried out thanks to the fees received from the provision of
training and consultancy services or private donations, such as the 5×1000 or
membership of the crowd-funding, which, for example, in the case of the 'Health
Holds Bench' project was very successful, allowing us to guarantee new meetings
to be held in other cities for the next school year”, recalls Dr. Elena
Cottafava.
The work that GIMBE
carries out in the area is fundamental. Citizen awareness translates into
adequate investments in public health. On the other hand, the state of health
and well-being of the population affects the growth of the country's GDP: those
who are ill, in fact, do not produce, do not consume and, often, also limit the
working activity of their family members. The Foundation must therefore bring
to light the evidence in the medical field and is committed to creating a
future in which the population has the best medical practices available, thus
contributing not only to individual health, but also to the interest of the
community.
*Lucrezia Lanzani is a student at the Steam Emilia High School. She is sixteen years old and has always been interested in social issues. She has been volunteering for three years in different organisations in her community.
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