From September 2023 AIDM training and information activity has resumed vigorously. The number of sections are increased significantly. In October we welcomed Crotone and soon many more will join us. Each of them would like to make a significant contribution especially to the spread and knowledge of sex and gender specific medicine, to violence against women, to well-being at work, to wage inequalities and to prevention of the most frequent pathologies. Many meetings concerned issues such as nutrition, cardiovascular differences, neurology, hematology, burn out, communication skills, and narrative medicine. 26 CME (accredited for Continuing Medical Education) Symposia were organized by AIDM sections betweeen September and December overall.
Others initiatives concerned prevention of cervical and breast cancer, gender medicine, violence against women and children, nutrition and obesity, and endocrinology. We are very pleased that Dr Antonella Vezzani (National President), Dr Concetta Laurentaci (Vice-President Southern Europe) and Dr Enrica Ciccarelli (AIDM Torino Metropolitana President) are involved in the Table of Gender Medicine Observatory of the National Institute of Health.
We are glad to inform you that Dr Carlotta Sacerdote, member of AIDM Torino Metropolitana section, has been included in the prestigious list of the best 400 scientists in the world for her epidemiological studies. Dr Federica Grosso (Member of Alessandria section), oncologist, has participated in an important multicentric study on pleural mesothelioma recently published in the Lancet.
Red shoes and red benches were everywhere in November and all AIDM sections organized meetings and events to increase attention to violence against women and children. Our National President Dr Antonella Vezzani participated in many of them and also in conferences hosted by other important organizations in Reggio Emilia, Parma, Reggio Calabria (GINESTRA STATI GENERALI CONTRO LA VIOLENZA DI GENERE), Pavia, and Roma. On 18th November AIDM issued a statement asking for more safeguards for women doctors, after the inexplicable killing of Dr Francesca Romeo returning home after a night shift.
AIDM, chaired by Dr. Antonella Vezzani, together with Emilia Solinas of the University Hospital, Prof. Rossana Cecchi and Prof. Lorella Franzoni of the University of Parma hosted the consortium meeting of the European VIPROM project “Victim Protection in Medicine” (website: https://viprom-cerv.eu) in Parma 26-27 September 2023. The five VIPROM partners from Greece, Germany, Austria, Sweden and Italy shared and discussed the results achieved, provided updates on ongoing activities six months after the start of the European VIPROM and planned next steps.
The first draft of the curriculum consisting of a modular system was presented and discussed. In parallel, existing training modules are currently being updated on the European training platform on domestic violence (https://training.improdova.eu/en/training-modules-for -the-health-sector/) Trainer courses will begin in autumn 2024 and a series of 10 European webinars based on the material of the training platform will begin in spring 2025.
The coordinator of VIPROM, Prof. Dr. Bettina Pfleiderer from the University of Münster in Germany and past MWIA president (2016-2019), was very satisfied with the outcome of the meeting and stated that: “An important milestone has been achieved towards the way to reduce domestic violence through specific training for medical professionals throughout Europe.”
Please follow the upcoming phases of the VIPROM project on social media: https://www.facebook.com/vipromcerveu; https://www.linkedin.com/company/viprom-cerveu/
Antonella Vezzani, National President
Silvana Capasso, National Co-ordinator
Fig 1. AIDM contribution to the patchwork carpet in Crema
Fig 2. Crema Square covered with a patchwork carpet against violence